Many of you know by now, I'm compiling a list of 1,000 posts to read before you die. They're not my posts - they're yours. And I'm picky. Read them all here. I don't have a thousand yet, but they are adding up, so get some coffee, relax, and of course - read.
Here's the latest one of a thousand to read. It's from the Charleston City Paper about novelist Bret Lott, a professor of English at the College of Charleston.
Here's an intriguing quote from him:
"At Gettysburg," . . . "Robert E. Lee said, 'It's all my fault.' In one simple, declarative sentence, he took on himself full responsibility for all those deaths.
Along comes Richard Nixon. What does he say? 'Mistakes were made.'
And then there's Bill Clinton — 'It depends on what the definition of "is" is.' Those statements create distance between actions and consequences."
The linked article, written by Jon Santiago, brings into focus Lott's apt perspective on writers:
Lott defines his turf as a novelist this way: "I think the writer is somebody who has chosen to really pay attention to the world and to see what is going on and discover the way the world works, rather than telling readers — 'I really know how the world works, and here's how it works.'"
Yes.
Spot on - as one commented.
2 comments:
I like Lott's philosophy on writers.
I think the days of people taking full responsibility for the actions around them went out the door with Harry S. Truman. Although, President Kennedy did take responsibility for the debacle with Cuba and the failed invasion there during his administration. But since then, I do believe the "responsibility" thing has gone down the tubes. It's always some one else who is at fault, it seems.
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