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Ambition in
Writing
ON WRITING & DIRECTING - by G.L. Horton
FG wrote: "Very few writers--if any--sit down and say--consciously
or otherwise--today, I think I'll explore deeper into humanity."
I'm not up to a debate at the moment, but I'd just
like to point out that all of the writers instanced so far have
indeed had "pompous and pretentious" aspirations to
greatness. Shakespeare seriously claimed that his work would outlive
marble and gilded monuments. Reading their letters, interviews,
and biographies reveals that the Great Moderns did really believe
that they were in an epic struggle to discover and communicate
Significance, that they wrote their plays in conscious reference
to and competition with great works of the past, and that they
hoped that their efforts would be rewarded with a place in a Classic
Canon that they regarded with something very like religious awe.
Not only did they work towards this end, they assumed that if
they achieved it the continuing life of their plays would enlighten
and engage their fellow citizens and improve the world.
This isn't sufficient, of course. A lot of people have had
the same ambitious delusions and written garbage. But although
some brief bursts of Truth and Beauty may be accomplished modestly
and, as it were, by happy accident, a great play is an ambitious
construct. No ambition, no cigar. (1/24/05)
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