Battle of the Ann(e)s
August 15, 2001
7:34 a.m.
The word processor says I'm on page 559. Same deal as yesterday, though. I still need to get comfy with the last ten pages.   I'm thinking about the difference between Anne Lamott and Ann Beattie. If you've followed the site, you know I've red quite a bit of Lamott's stuff. I'm reading Ann Beattie for the first time. Both of them are excellent, enjoyable writers in thier own right. Both of them literary, though I would guess Ann Beattie probably pegs this meter a tad higher within the snobbish circles that us rot-gut, engineer-doped science fiction writers could never be allowed into. Regardless, both of these writers find characters and make them compelling. Both are detail oriented. Both are interesting to read. Beattie is more quirky to me. Her characters are broken people, flawed in some very deep places that may never really be able to be healed. Maybe this is what makes me say that she rings higher on the "literary" scale. Lamott's characters are different--hence, so are her stories. Lamott's characters are just as broken, but she paints them onto a core of optimism. Lamott's characters know the world is not supposed to be painful, despite the fact that it is. Some of her stories make you hurt because despite knowing life should be better, some of these characters can't find their way out. Some of her stories make you smile because some of these characters do find their way out. I'm thinking about this because I've noticed feeling strange the last few days. I've not felt as upbeat as I usually do, and I think a part of it has to do with reading Ann Beattie's work. Strange, I suppose. Don't get me wrong. I like what I've read of it. And the fact that I can try to append my emotions throughout the day to her work should tell you something about her abilities as a writer. It's just that ... well. If I had my choice, I would read Lamott because her work is about struggling against the world, wherein Beattie's is about letting the world flow around you. How's that for a broad-brush generalization?  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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Sara McLachlan on the CD again |
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