tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post4888593550585953632..comments2023-06-21T18:53:11.897+10:00Comments on Pykk: through the sombre massUmbagollahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-48578576414272228752013-08-16T00:57:25.008+10:002013-08-16T00:57:25.008+10:00... I'm going to bring up George Eliot's n...... I'm going to bring up George Eliot's name in a couple of posts, I think, because one of the problems is that she wants to write like Eliot -- she wants to write philosophically, she wants to introduce ideas to her novels and show you how they pan out in normal life -- but she can't get that Eliot complexity inside her characters. <br /><br />All of this applies mainly to <i>The Silent Sea</i> and <i>An Australian Girl</i>, though, the Arunta-woman one, <i>The Incredible Journey</i> is written in a more self-consciously mythological style, and less like a Victorian serial.Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-42166737303484966802013-08-15T15:56:14.659+10:002013-08-15T15:56:14.659+10:00That was my thought too. She would have been a sup...That was my thought too. She would have been a superb travel writer if she'd managed to throw away the stiff half-alive characters and the Victorian plots (a love affair, a villain with a treasure) and concentrate on the countryside instead. Ask her to describe a South Australian mining camp and she snaps into focus. Ask her to describe her heroine and you're in for half a page of dewy rose-cheeks and standard sparkling eyes. Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5424364424049242300.post-22863529225302951752013-08-15T15:40:56.720+10:002013-08-15T15:40:56.720+10:00I agree. But I think possibly I only object when a...I agree. But I think possibly I only object when authors are not skilful/crafty enough to conceal from me the fact that they are forcing their prejudices on me. That descriptive passage is lovely, I think - then, when I read your comments about the writer's failures of characterisation, it made me think that it's a pity a novelist can't choose just to be a landscape novelist in the way that a painter can be just a landscape painter, if they're not much good at people.zmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.com