WRITING
Looking At Authenticity
Vulnerability in writing, flaws and prejudices
Often, readers hear writers or critics talk about authenticity in writing. I once wondered what this meant. How could a writer be authentic or not authentic? Then we hear talk of vulnerability. What is that? I had a lot to think about as I made my way through sixth form college and university.
I came to deduce that authenticity has to do with being oneself entirely, in writing as in life. Authors who are interviewed sound just as they write. No airs and graces, no pretence.
Look at Hilary Mantel, who wrote the Wolf Hall series. In interviews she sounds just like her writing in her books. That isn’t to say we only have one style of writing in us. It is to say that what we write rings true about us, the writer.
Then we have T.S. Elliot, the poet. Was he authentic? Or just flawed? He put his wife in an asylum to suit his endeavours and was anti-semitic. To me these are not flaws but decisions based on misinformation and are immoral. He was prejudiced against Jews for whatever reason. That is no flaw, it is a decision a choice. I prefer not to read him. I will not stop others. I really do not believe in censorship at all. I do think, though, that wisdom can be manifested. Take Salman Rushdie and Midnight’s Children.
