Quote:
Originally Posted by neilmarr
Sorry to have to answer your ill-informed 'straw man' accusation, Anamardoll. Simply Google 'authors who admit to not reading books' and you will find many.
The very first listing there, in fact, is about the renowned Umberto Eco who openly states in a Guardian piece: "I'm a writer, not a reader." There are others, Of course, I have read Eco. But after reading what he has said here and there, I will never do so again.
I believe it to be an outright insult to intelligent readers and to other writers to say that the only merit and inspiration Eco and the likes sees in literature is in their own.
But that is a side-issue in the subject under discussion. Neil
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Neil, I admire the courage of saying hard things, but that sounds to me as if you're trying to hurt with an accusation rather than trying to help with a warning. Connecting the quote you provided to the "outright insult" you drew from it requires quite a leap of peevishness. And that's before the context Anamardoll provided.
But here's some cannon-fodder: I gave up reading for years so I could develop and write my own voice and perspective without being led. The world didn't end, and I'm enjoying reading again.