[lit-ideas] Re: Venomous Writing
- From: Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2010 21:49:14 -0500
I'm not at all knowledgeable about the existence or writings of Camille
Desmoulins. Was he just a gossip columnist or a serious journalist? Was he
respected for his factual accuracy or would he have been at home on Fox
News? "Accurate scholarship can unearth the whole offense from Luther
until now." If what he wrote was accurate, then where's the question?
Truth whether expressed vituperatively, mockingly, or cleverly is not
abusive. Truth is never abusive. Lies, innuendo, misrepresentation -- they
are abusive. A wicked tongue speaking truth speaks the truth none the less.
Mike Geary
Memphis
speaking to a subject I know not of -- but so what? I always do.
On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 8:39 PM, John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> Just stumbled across the following. Thought I'd toss it out for some
> literary and/or philosophical reflection.
>
> From Hilary Mantel (1992) *A Place of Greater Safety, *p. 237, describing
> Camille Desmoulins, a propagandist during the French Revolution.
>
> *When it came time to write, and he took his pen in his hand, he never
> thought of consequences; he thought of style. I wonder why I ever bothered
> with sex, he thought; there's nothing in this breathing world so gratifying
> as an artfully placed semicolon. Once paper and ink were to hand, it was
> useless to appeal to his better nature, to tell him he was wrecking
> reputations and ruining people's lives. A kind of sweet venom flowed through
> his veins, smoother than the finest cognac, quicker to make the head spin.
> And, just as some people crave opium, he craves the opportunity to exercise
> his fine art of mockery, vituperation and abuse; laudanum might quieten the
> senses, but a good editorial puts a catch in the throat and a skip in the
> heartbeat. Writing's like running downhill; can't stop if you want to.*
>
> John
>
>
> John McCreery
> The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
> Tel. +81-45-314-9324
> jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.wordworks.jp/
>
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