Off At A Tangent
Aug. 17th, 2009 09:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloActually politics has very little to do with whether I like a writer or not.
I'm talking writers of substance here- writers with settled reputations- writers of classic status.
For instance I love Evelyn Waugh and dislike George Orwell- even though politically I'm on Orwell's side and against Waugh.
Aldous Huxley is a writer whose views I largely share. I find him creepy.
Yeats was a deeply unpleasant man and a proto-fascist. I adore him.
I'm not sure I can explain any of this. I was going to say that one of the things I dislike in Orwell is his do-gooding preachiness, but Dickens, who I love, is full of do-gooding preachiness, so that can't be it.
There's a randomness about it. I love Agatha Christie and dislike Dorothy L. Sayers. I love Tolkien and dislike C.S. Lewis. I love Balzac and dislike Zola.
I think it's all down to pheromones. Literary pheromones. Some people turn me on, some repel me.
It's not the least bit reasonable.
I'm talking writers of substance here- writers with settled reputations- writers of classic status.
For instance I love Evelyn Waugh and dislike George Orwell- even though politically I'm on Orwell's side and against Waugh.
Aldous Huxley is a writer whose views I largely share. I find him creepy.
Yeats was a deeply unpleasant man and a proto-fascist. I adore him.
I'm not sure I can explain any of this. I was going to say that one of the things I dislike in Orwell is his do-gooding preachiness, but Dickens, who I love, is full of do-gooding preachiness, so that can't be it.
There's a randomness about it. I love Agatha Christie and dislike Dorothy L. Sayers. I love Tolkien and dislike C.S. Lewis. I love Balzac and dislike Zola.
I think it's all down to pheromones. Literary pheromones. Some people turn me on, some repel me.
It's not the least bit reasonable.
