Let's say that writing and literature are not the same. They rarely look the same with different forms, paragraphs, settings and subject matter-introspective rather than appealing to surface understandings. Journalism is writing, unless it claims to also be literature (the claiming is important) because its writing is reflective, carries emotion laden adjectives, concrete symbols and some very long sentences. Is the vocabulary and the use to which it is put the difference? Shakespeare was, it seems, congenitally unable to write reportage, but nevertheless wrote ideas into his scripts.
And yet-----George Orwell's journalism is uniformly considered literature. Mainly because of its style! His style is often bare with a clear connection to the work of Daniel Defore, who never considered himself an artist.
Kissinger did not write literature preferring to explain his views without reflection, except in his arguments. Also, Kissinger did not actually write Diplomacy, only parts. Others did. And yet, neither did Alexander Dumas write his famous novels but gave chapters or parts of chapters for others to write. Is there a distinction between Good Writing and Literature?
Literature is what ends up in the archive of history, i.e. a lot of literature is not good writing, but it is saved for various reasons (e.g. influence, dogmatic decisions, documentation).Good writing is like a learning process; it may propel you (and others) forward, but it may not end up in the mausoleum of literature.
___________
The story so far: In the beginning, the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Stephen,
Is Douglas Adams literature?
I would say yes as it represents the kind of satire not far from Thomas Love Peacock, who is considered part of English Literature. Like Peacock, Adams was concerned with ideas and their effect on human perception.
Writing means the creation of public pronouncements and can be a paragraph or a large book, implying the substantiation of knowledge of the time. The use of writing was slow to develop and certainly was helped by its inclusion into religious rhetoric. Then it was employed for public persuasion and control.
As a means of constructing knowledge it similarly played a part in developing reality. Early religious writing, found in Sumeria, constructed a reality through the use of gods and the environment of the gods. Gilgamesh involves a debate on the nature of gods and goddesses and their role in the human world and their relationship with human beings, their creation. Through the central figure of Gilgamesh, it discusses the role of kings politically and ethically.
It created a specific reflective and critical mindset.
Literature is or should be transcendent with, but not dependent on, public responsibilities.
Writing began in Sumeria and Egypt as adjuncts to trade. A kind of pure mathematics-but then became informative and directive. It contained limited information between merchants and later rulers and ruled.
Noticed that I owe you Stanley Wilkin an answer, concerning Douglas Adams. It seems to me that Douglas Adams has already become a part of Western Literature.
___________
There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
Douglas Adams
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
Douglas Adams,
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
Stephen,
I've read all his SF work and consider it a break through in style as well as wit-and a lot to do with that is his beginnings in writing scripts for radio, Monty Python and other early radio comedies, and the theatre of the absurd.
I am enthralled with ancient literature and hold that it should be taught at every university, and not just Sumerian but Egyptian too. There is a lot of Christianity in the second of these determining its roots, but a lot of the Jewish myths and legends in both. Gilgamesh and shorter works I suspect were read to the elite as plays.
Egyptian works were mainly for the elite but still show Egyptian understanding of other cultures, such as the nomads in present day Palestine and their understanding of Egyptian superiority and Egypt's removal from inferior cultures.
Nothing changes!
Literature reconstructed both past and present.
I think that we are talking about two opposite faces of one coin!
The rise of religious/nationalistic literature came first at about 2,500 BCE, an essential means of discussing human social and political developments through separate distinctive cognitive forms. The descriptions of Akkadian political and military processes accompanied religious developments, whereby the king became a god and specific worship was centralised.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Social Science
- Sociology