What follows is a spoiler free excerpt from my 2018 novel The Girl on the Page. One of main characters, a writer called Malcolm, is on a panel at a literary festival and the topic under discussion is 'What is Literature?' Here's what he had to say on the matter...
Malcolm:
‘I used to teach writing. I failed most of my students because the one thing I wanted them to learn was the one thing hardest to teach. I wanted them to see the world as it is. It’s harder to do than it sounds. We’re all encased in stories – those told to us and those we tell ourselves. I would say to them, in the safety of that classroom, that most novelists write by dipping their ladle into the great vat of past fictions. In that vat, stewing for centuries, are all the plots, clichés, tropes, themes, character types and common phrases ever used in fiction. Novels written using this method are usually quite successful because they ask nothing of the reader. The reader reads in a pleasant stupor of familiarity. A publisher might describe this kind of fiction as commercial fiction.
‘The fiction I was trying to encourage my students to write was fiction written from direct experience of life. This kind of fiction is much harder to write and is, in turn, sometimes taxing to read. But often only at first. As readers we navigate by signpost, but in this kind of fiction the signposts are unfamiliar to us, almost as though written in another language. We stumble around, we get lost, we might even get frustrated, but there comes a time, if we’re patient, when we learn to see the world anew, as the writer has learnt to see it, and suddenly all of the signposts become clear. And if we’re very lucky, life itself becomes clearer.
‘No one writes exclusively from the vat, just as no one writes exclusively from life. Writing is a series of compromises. Writers from life need to be understood, so they borrow from the vat. Writers from the vat need to be new, so they take from life.’
Malcolm stopped speaking.
‘We’re all here because we love reading. Especially novels,’ Malcolm continued. ‘To be honest, I’ve never particularly liked the idea of literature. I’m still suspicious of the word. When I was growing up in London’s East End, it always seemed to be a stick with which to beat the lower classes. As a teen I resented those who read and enjoyed the classics, who went to see Shakespeare at the theatre, who could drop quotes into their conversation. And I was right to. Many people did use literature as a weapon. And they still do. And I would hate for anyone to think that I thought of literature that way. To me, literature is the fastest and surest route to understanding something of this life. At eighty-one, I know how brief our lives are. Mine has flashed by. And any help making sense of the world is still most welcome. The quicker the better. What is literature? Literature is life’s cheat sheet.'
About the author
John Purcell is the author of five published works of fiction. The Secret Lives of Emma trilogy published by Penguin Random House and The Lessons and The Girl on the Page published by 4th Estate.
Malcolm:
‘I used to teach writing. I failed most of my students because the one thing I wanted them to learn was the one thing hardest to teach. I wanted them to see the world as it is. It’s harder to do than it sounds. We’re all encased in stories – those told to us and those we tell ourselves. I would say to them, in the safety of that classroom, that most novelists write by dipping their ladle into the great vat of past fictions. In that vat, stewing for centuries, are all the plots, clichés, tropes, themes, character types and common phrases ever used in fiction. Novels written using this method are usually quite successful because they ask nothing of the reader. The reader reads in a pleasant stupor of familiarity. A publisher might describe this kind of fiction as commercial fiction.
‘The fiction I was trying to encourage my students to write was fiction written from direct experience of life. This kind of fiction is much harder to write and is, in turn, sometimes taxing to read. But often only at first. As readers we navigate by signpost, but in this kind of fiction the signposts are unfamiliar to us, almost as though written in another language. We stumble around, we get lost, we might even get frustrated, but there comes a time, if we’re patient, when we learn to see the world anew, as the writer has learnt to see it, and suddenly all of the signposts become clear. And if we’re very lucky, life itself becomes clearer.
‘No one writes exclusively from the vat, just as no one writes exclusively from life. Writing is a series of compromises. Writers from life need to be understood, so they borrow from the vat. Writers from the vat need to be new, so they take from life.’
Malcolm stopped speaking.
‘We’re all here because we love reading. Especially novels,’ Malcolm continued. ‘To be honest, I’ve never particularly liked the idea of literature. I’m still suspicious of the word. When I was growing up in London’s East End, it always seemed to be a stick with which to beat the lower classes. As a teen I resented those who read and enjoyed the classics, who went to see Shakespeare at the theatre, who could drop quotes into their conversation. And I was right to. Many people did use literature as a weapon. And they still do. And I would hate for anyone to think that I thought of literature that way. To me, literature is the fastest and surest route to understanding something of this life. At eighty-one, I know how brief our lives are. Mine has flashed by. And any help making sense of the world is still most welcome. The quicker the better. What is literature? Literature is life’s cheat sheet.'
About the author
John Purcell is the author of five published works of fiction. The Secret Lives of Emma trilogy published by Penguin Random House and The Lessons and The Girl on the Page published by 4th Estate.
