I read an interesting blog today by the author Barbara Quick. She talks about readers’ obsession to fill Tolstoy's shoes with some "grand" authors of our day...but those shoes are always several sizes too big for any modern author, no matter how talented and best-selling they are. She claims that our attempt is due to a panic that there will never be another Tolstoy.
You know, it may hurt to hear, but in reality there probably never will be another Tolstoy.
So we should just get over it?! Cry, rip our hair out, rent our clothes?
Well, before we have to go replace our wardrobes, we stop
and breathe…
The upside: there will be authors with strengths different
from Tolstoy’s.
Of course we've lost something of our language that we'll
never gain again, no matter how rich the characters or captivating the
plot. The English language is becoming
denuded. Really, and truly. Some “literary” authors and agents try to
maintain it by writing some beautiful things that do at times get applause from the “literary” world, but often these things aren't read by the majority of readers.
This is mostly depressing
to us readers and writers, but then in some ways, when something is stripped to
its bare essentials, might it also give a glimpse of the heart and soul of
what’s really beating under all that glamorous sentence structuring and immense
vocabulary?
Like a waxed layer coming
off to reveal a shining cherry wood, or makeup revealing the even more natural
beauty of a girl. (of course it can
reveal blemishes too!)
Sometimes when all is stripped the heart of the matter can
really shine. I guess we can only hope
for that. After all, perhaps the greatest
words of all time have certainly done well for themselves and it doesn’t get
much simpler than this:
I LOVE YOU.
