Art for Art’s Sake 2/28
Writing Aesthetic Fiction in an Age of Literary Moralism
Hi all,
A quick line to share I’ll be chatting with
—and hopefully some of you—about writing aesthetic fiction on Wednesday, February 28 at 8pm EST (virtual).
The format, an
salon, is a more interactive sort of event than I’ve done in the past, and I’m really looking forward to it.What is a salon?
An Interintellect salon is an evening-length conversation (typically one to three hours) around a specific topic, carrying the atmosphere of a cozy, living room gathering.
As for this one specifically, you can find all the details here and copied below. Tickets are free for Interintellect members or $15 à la carte:
Join American novelists A. Natasha Joukovsky (The Portrait of a Mirror) and Tara Isabella Burton (Here in Avalon; Social Creature) for a salon on the nature of novelistic responsibility, the prevailing ethos of historico-political utility in contemporary fiction and its discontents, and the literary pursuit of beauty and truth.
In her 2022 essay for Lit Hub “Anxiety and Irresponsibility: What Is to Be Done About Literary Moralism?” Joukovsky argues against the “moral medicine” view of literature, offering ten specific tips for writing aesthetic fiction—fiction that justifies itself. In this salon, we will dive into these ideas one-by-one, from egoic disarmament to Oscar Wilde’s famous claim: “All art is quite useless.”
Topics discussed will include:
Character development, mimetic desire, and plot.
Literary research, influence, allusion, and plagiarism.
The separation vs. conflation of novelistic and marketing concerns.
Recommended Materials
“Anxiety and Irresponsibility: What is to Be Done About Literary Moralism?” by A. Natasha Joukovsky
“Why we love stories about messy rich people . . . and hate ourselves for it” by A. Natasha Joukovsky
Probably needless to say, but I’m expecting the discussion to be pretty on-theme of this newsletter! The ten tips are:
Success generally rests on disarming the very cognitive defense mechanisms designed to protect one’s fragile psyche.
The most unbelievable people make for the most believable characters.
When you write about writing, the bar is higher.
“The great novelists reveal the imitative nature of desire.” –René Girard [see this & this]
Study the great novels you desire to imitate; a classroom may be helpful, but is certainly not required.
Steal a little bit from everyone and you’ll never be a plagiarist.
Traditional novels are often the most original (see T.S. Eliot’s “Tradition and the Individual Talent”).
“When information becomes free and universally accessible, voluminous research for a novel is devalued along with it.” –Jonathan Franzen
Twitter can be helpful in marketing a book, but it is usually not helpful in writing one.
“The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.” –Oscar Wilde
Hope to see you the 28th,
ANJ
“The age of literary moralism” I need to know more.
Heard Jack E. Davis, Pulitzer Prize winning author recently call it the “era of oppression” in regards to books and life in general.
It could be said that everything positive about the human condition has already been written about hundreds of times over, this includes all of the various Scriptures (etc) from all over the world.
And yet the world is becoming more and more insane every day.
In this time and place how many people even read life-positive or quality literature?
Their numbers are overwhelmed by those who dont.
The principal and most powerful causative factor was TV. But in the now-time of 2024 the most powerful driver of this anti-culture are the various forms of social media.
The anti-culture produced by these forms of media is completely indifferent to, and indeed hostile towards the well-being of every living-breathing-feeling inhabitant of this planet. Countless hundreds of millions of dreadfully sane human beings actively participate in this anti-culture, and the rest of us are affected by it too. Everyone transmits their emotional state in all directions. Everyone is instantaneously affected by all of it.