As you may know, Im a great fan of the works of the Canadian author, Robertson Davies. So, when Im looking for inspiration and ideas, I turn to his articles on writing. I came across a speech he gave in 1990 for the Tanner Lectures in New Haven, Connecticut. One is entitled simply Writing, the other Reading.
What makes a novel good or even really great, so that it will be read one hundred years from now [or more]? What takes a novel out of its own time, so to speak, and become universal?
I have to quote Davies from his speech where he talks of an essential quality he calls
shamanstvo.
To weave the spell, the writer must have within him something comparable to the silk spinning and web-casting gift of a spider; he must not only have something to say, some story to tell, or some wisdom to impart, but he must have a characteristic way of doing it which entraps and holds still his prey, by which I mean his reader.
When reading this, I first think of shamans [i.e.: shamanstvo]some sort of mystic, a healer, with powers not given to mere mortals. Perhaps a trickster or someone claiming to communicate with gods!
A tall order for us who toil...
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