Igenlode Wordsmith

The Case in the Documents?

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 00:06:05 GMT

This news story from the 1920s must surely have been in the mind of Dorothy L. Sayers when she was creating the character of Margaret Harrison in her novel The Documents in the Case... those cited letters (I was buoyed up with the hope of the 'light bulb' and I used a lot — big pieces too — not powdered — and it had no effect — I quite expected to be able to send you that cable — but no — nothing has happened from it) could almost be direct quotes. Which is ironic, as successive critics have complained that Margaret's self-dramatising, emotional yet commonplace letters are the weakest and least plausible part of the book!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-63561245

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The Worth of the Maker

Sat, 29 Aug 2020 00:42:17 GMT

I'm amused to see that the final section of Dorothy L.Sayers' "The Mind of the Maker" has apparently been described by reviewers both as condemning capitalism and as an exposé of socialism, thus indicating that the reader is apt to see in it precisely what he puts there himself...

The religious aspect, I'm afraid, leaves me stone cold( Read more... )

Shorn of its religious trappings, however, the argument of the final chapters is essentially that of William Morris, Tom Rolt, et al. -- that the human being is by nature an artist who needs to express himself in his work, whatever that may be, and that by turning a world of craftsmen into a world of mindless machine-servants we have created widespread alienation and dissatisfaction.( Read more... )

Sayers' argument is that the activity of creation in some form or another is a primary human need; that a worker should take pride in what he produces and do it with integrity, whether that be a well-run household or a political negotiation or a setting for a gemstone or a piece of computer software. "Yet the integrity of the work—the stipulation that it shall be both worth doing and well done— rarely figures in any scheme for an ordered society".

Which is of course neither a leftwing nor a rightwing attitude, but an artistic one.

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The Mind of the Reader

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 22:32:27 GMT

I'm still not convinced (or converted) by Dorothy L. Sayers' intricate doctrinal analogies in "The Mind of the Maker", although as literary analysis they hold the customary satisfaction of finding a prominent public figure pointing out things with which one oneself agrees :-p

Having asserted with a reasonable degree of conviction that the creative process can be considered tripartite (although it seems a bit arbitrary to pick out three elements), she then goes on to announce that the process of reading can itself be divided into three interdependent parts. ( Thought, Energy and Power )

But one analogy that I did find very striking was her explanation for the thorny Christian question of Free Will and a loving God in terms of a writer's relationship with his characters. ( Free Will )

There is an interesting section of literary criticism defined in terms of her creed which she entitles "Scalene Trinities"; faults of writing analysed in terms of 'too much Father' (all idea but no emotional involvement), 'too much Son' (all technique and no vision), 'not enough Son' (those with an Idea but not enough creative talent to express it adequately) and 'failure in the Ghost' (a lack of critical judgment resulting in leaden prose).

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The Mind of the Maker

Thu, 30 Jul 2020 22:30:30 GMT

Rereading Dorothy L. Sayers' "The Mind of the Maker" -- I can feel my brain-cells straining. (And since she states that it is written from the point of view of a working novelist about Christian doctrine without in any way making a statement about the author's own belief in that doctrine, I am reading it in the same light.)

Idea, Energy, Power: ( Idea is the concept, Energy is the work of communicating it, Power is the reader's reaction )

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