I have a tricky personality. Since I was a kid I’ve been obsessed with the quest for capital-T Truth. (Some notion of objective truth.) I’ve never understood the superficiality of human society—the lying, the cheating, the pretending. I’ve also been sober for twelve years and I have been in 12-step recovery since then; honesty is a huge part of that program. (I don’t in any way claim to always be 100% honest. That said: I do try my best, even [especially] when it’s unpopular.)
I so agree with you and with exactly what Stephen King said in that fab memoir. In the creative writing classroom, one of the first things I say is that so-called "political" correctness has no place in ART. I add here to explain that if that were the case, we would never have had, as one example, Philip Roth's terrific novel _The Dying Animal_ that Michiko Kakutani gave a horrid review in the NYTimes calling Roth "misogynist," if I recall correctly--the gist anyway of the review. in my view, she totally missed what Roth achieved in that novel that went on to become a terrific flick, too.
Thank you, Michael, for writing this. There’s a lot to take in! I’m wondering if you would expand on your search for Capital-T Truth and your reference to “we have to write our “truth,” whatever is on our minds.’ How do you best explain those two concepts working in harmony together? — Georgia
I so agree with you and with exactly what Stephen King said in that fab memoir. In the creative writing classroom, one of the first things I say is that so-called "political" correctness has no place in ART. I add here to explain that if that were the case, we would never have had, as one example, Philip Roth's terrific novel _The Dying Animal_ that Michiko Kakutani gave a horrid review in the NYTimes calling Roth "misogynist," if I recall correctly--the gist anyway of the review. in my view, she totally missed what Roth achieved in that novel that went on to become a terrific flick, too.
Thank you, Michael, for writing this. There’s a lot to take in! I’m wondering if you would expand on your search for Capital-T Truth and your reference to “we have to write our “truth,” whatever is on our minds.’ How do you best explain those two concepts working in harmony together? — Georgia