tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post3885509117865876767..comments2024-03-28T19:56:32.848-05:00Comments on Anecdotal Evidence: `Say "No" Cheerfully and Definitely'Patrick Kurphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08436175583386298032noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-12287132836373443632015-11-05T09:43:03.255-06:002015-11-05T09:43:03.255-06:00Merton’s reply (September 3) to Waugh’s letter is ...Merton’s reply (September 3) to Waugh’s letter is printed in The Courage for Truth: Letters to Writers (Farrar, Strauss & Giraux, 1993). In it he disagrees with Ronald Knox’s dictum that God isn’t interested in good prose and claims to be very happy that Waugh will judge the idle words in The Seven-Storey Mountain before God does. ‘It has been quite humiliating for me to find out from [Robert] Graves and [Alan] Hodge [authors of Reader over Your Shoulder, which Waugh had sent to Merton]) that my bad habits are the same as those of every other second-rate writer outside the monastery. The same haste, distraction etc.’ In a letter written twenty years later, Merton recalled that Waugh had also sent him a copy of Ward Fowler’s (sic) Modern English Usage. A very Waugh-like gesture would have been to send him a dictionary, but there’s no evidence he ever did.Suspiriushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15392518283976682523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-13128277650806571302015-11-04T14:42:40.073-06:002015-11-04T14:42:40.073-06:00As soon as I left the earlier comment I realized I...As soon as I left the earlier comment I realized I had ignored most of Waugh's advice. Looking at it now it's worse than I thought. I am in Los Angeles on business and just picked up Klinkenborg's 'Several short sentences about writing.' Have you come across it? Perhaps it will help me. On my last visit here a few weeks ago, I read The Loved One for the first time. What would Waugh have done with LA now?Edward Bauerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14234329254784727525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-53738153860544381532015-11-04T11:38:25.909-06:002015-11-04T11:38:25.909-06:00I had no idea that Waugh and Merton crossed paths....I had no idea that Waugh and Merton crossed paths. Thank you for the education, Mr Kurp. I second Mr Bauer’s praise of the Fire Watch chapter of <i>The Sign of Jonas</i>. As a younger person I was also very fond of the first few chapters of Merton’s <i>The New Man</i>, though I haven’t reread that book in many years.D. I. Dalrymplehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13975446519920126985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21999805.post-41929751746987703552015-11-04T09:47:30.263-06:002015-11-04T09:47:30.263-06:00As one who fell under Merton's spell as a very...As one who fell under Merton's spell as a very young man, then moved on to prefer writers who follow Waugh's instructions, I appreciate today's post. I had to re-read Seven Storey Mountain this Spring to assist in a several-week seminar surrounding the 100th anniversary of Merton's birth. I was amazed by how long-winded it was -- there's no way most people would muddle through it today. Yet parts are very well done and almost poetic, such as the train ride from New York to Gethsemani for Holy Week 1941. I believe Merton's best piece of writing, although it too could have used an editor, is called Fire Watch, the last part of Sign of Jonas. Thanks again for your work.Edward Bauerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14234329254784727525noreply@blogger.com