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Jan
07
UNLESS IT MOVES THE HUMAN HEART, Inspiring Readers and Writers Alike
2011 at 5am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Published January 4, 2010 by Ecco Books
Put down whatever you’re reading and go pick up a copy of Roger Rosenblatt’s Unless It Moves the Human Heart. Do it now. I’ll wait.
I can think of no better way to kick off a new year of reading than with a book about “The Craft and Art of Writing,” and Rosenblatt does not disappoint. Drawing on more than forty years of experience, Rosenblatt recalls one semester in his “Writing Everything” course, sharing not only his own insights about what makes writing art but also his students’ perspectives, developments, and profound statements as they grapple with
questions of style, substance, and what it means to live “the writing life.”
There is much to be loved in this slim (175-page) volume that deserves a home on every bibliophile’s shelves. For your reading pleasure, just a few of Rosenblatt’s nuggets of wisdom, which prove just as instructive for readers and critics as they are for writers.
Work toward anticipation in your writing, not surprise. We stare at a stretch of land over which the sun is expected to rise, and we see the moon rise instead. Big deal. So what? but we stare and wait for the sun to rise, and it does rise. My, my!
Rosenblatt is getting at the idea that great writing is often less about what happens than it is about how it happens (a sentiment I share). He understands that his students will be tempted to resort to trickery and flash when the work becomes difficult, and he exhorts them to resist, to challenge themselves, and to give their readers (and themselves) credit for being capable of more.
Anticipation is more satisfying, because it allows a thought or a feeling to build in your mind, rather than assaulting you with a sudden twist.
On why he begins the course with a short story assignment:
Stories are central to life. They’re everywhere: in the law, where a prosecutor tells one story and the defense tells another, and the jury decides which it prefers. The only reason O.J. Simpson got off in his murder trial was that the jury preferred Johnnie Cochran’s story to Marcia Clark’s. In medicine, a patient tells a doctor the story of his ailment, how he felt on this day or that, and the doctor tells the patient the story of the therapy, how he will feel this day and that, until, one hopes, the story will have a happy ending. Politics? He who tells the best story wins, be it Pol Pot or FDB. They myths of business. The foundations of religion—the “greatest story ever told.” Everything you write here is a story. Short stories tell stories, of course, yet so do essays and poems. An essay is the story of an idea or of a true event; a poem is the story of a feeling.
Rosenblatt stresses the difference between invention and imagination, encouraging his students to focus on the latter because “imagination ties the freakish…to the eternal.”
As writers you have to remind yourself that people are always strange. they don’t need to have three nipples, or four ears, or be able to swallow the ocean in one gulp to be strange. and the great moment in writing something is when you realize that the wonderful, unheard-of event you just made up is part of the wonderful, heard-of event of life itself.
Throughout the text, Rosenblatt discusses his preference for restraint and economy of language, instructing students to rein in their descriptions and choose their words carefully, but he states that this is not always the right method. He acknowledges that he would have (wrongly) edited the “dazzle” out of Michael Chabon’s work, and his exploration of the responsibilities inherent in teaching writing is just as fascinating as his discussion of the mechanics.
What I teach my students about writing may become writing. I try not to overthink this, because the burden of competence is daunting.
In a chapter entitled “Writing Like a Reader,” Rosenblatt reminds his students that good readers make good writers, but he emphasizes “the special selective way that writers use the reading they do.”
As a writer you should know as much as you need to know, but no more than that. Read like a picky thief…Knowledge to a writer is unlike knowledge to other people. It is valuable only to the point of satisfying the writer’s artistic claims.
Rosenblatt knows that concerns about commercial appeal are unavoidable, and he reminds his students to worry about the art first.
When a writer wonders, “Will it sell?” he is lost, not because he is looking to make an extra buck or two, but rather because, by dint of asking the question in the first place, he has oriented himself toward the expectations of others. The world is not a focus group. The world is an appetite waiting to be defined. The greatest love you can show it is to create what it needs…
And finally, on why anyone would want to live the often difficult life of the writer:
But look at the world. Who would not want to change it? Books count. They disturb people. You never heard of a tyrant who wanted to burn the TV sets.
Whatever your place in the world of words and literature, you will learn from and be inspired by Roger Rosenblatt’s Unless It Moves the Human Heart. This is a book that will transform the way you read, the way you write, and the way you write about what you read.
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I just bought this book! I thought it would be an excellent read to take on my book tour travels this month.
Terrific post, Rebecca.
Wonderful! I am looking for new books for my creative writing class for next semester. This one sounds like a perfect supplement for my students.
Jennifer-Girls Gone Reading´s last [type] ..Friday Coffee Chat- I’ll Wait for the Comic Book
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rebecca Schinsky and Rebecca Schinsky. Rebecca Schinsky said: UNLESS IT MOVES THE HUMAN HEART, Inspiring Readers and Writers Alike http://goo.gl/fb/7pul3 [...]
I loved this book, too! Jewels on every page!
Rebekah´s last [type] ..Happy New Year- Mr President – 2010 GW Bush Reading Rivalry Update
You’ve convinced me.
You shouldn’t know more than you need to know? So that would be… nothing? Everything?
heidenkind´s last [type] ..The Metropolis Case by Matthew Gallaway
You should read just enough to do what you need to do and not so much that you bog yourself down, import someone else’s ideas, or become more focused on demonstrating your erudition than on writing well.
This book sounds absolutely fascinating. I have made it a goal for myself to read more nonfiction about writing this year (to inspire and guide myself) and this book sounds like the perfect book to get me started. Thanks for the recommendation.
[...] know what? If you read this book maybe you’ll love it like Book Lady’s Blog and I’m sure plenty of readers did. But maybe you [...]