An Experiment in Criticism

[Amaranthine]

This is a very interesting book. Lewis tells his views about literature that I find quite odd.

There's a chapter that gave me a light bulb moment, chapter nine: Poetry, in his last paragraph he says that, "Again it is possible that those who are now young have met vers libre too early in life. When this is real poetry, its aural effects are of extreme delicacy and demand for their appreciation an ear long trained on metrical poetry."

I read more and more on this chapter. It is only now that I understand that we Lewis was saying, "Teach people how to read."

I used to be enraged by this statement because I also believe that, "Everyone interpets different literature differently. There is no right or wrong." This may be true, but the writer may be trying to point out something in their writing that the inexperienced reader is not getting.

Now the writer may be a good writer, but they may have grammar issues or the keep going back and forth on present tense or past tense(I have this problem  <_<) so the message may not be clear to the reader.

But if the writing is well structured, but is just hard for the inexperienced reader to understand and the writer is not happy with what the reader

The point of the book seems to be that Lewis is critizing criticism of literature and all art in general!

[DarkHououmon]

Now the writer may be a good writer, but they may have grammar issues or the keep going back and forth on present tense or past tense(I have this problem  <_<) so the message may not be clear to the reader.

I have this so-called "problem" as well, but I don't consider it a problem at all. I never did. I just call it a "style of writing" and does not mean that the writer is inexperienced or "has bad grammar".

For me, I switch between tenses because I do not feel comfortable or motivated with sticking to just one. It limits my writing and I can end up losing interesting in writing the story if I am forced to use just one tense.

[Amaranthine]

I have this so-called "problem" as well, but I don't consider it a problem at all. I never did. I just call it a "style of writing" and does not mean that the writer is inexperienced or "has bad grammar".

:huh: Hm, I never thought of it that way DarkHououmon. I guess it would be a style of writing...however, I didn't mean that they would be "bad writers" or have "bad grammar" because of this. I simply said that, "They may be good writers, but the read may not understand them because of grammar and switching past to present tense. That's what I was trying to say.