Читать книгу Letters from Amherst - Samuel R. Delany - Страница 6
ОглавлениеNever was a work—if it can be called a work—less planned and less contrived than these … letters written at longish intervals, almost always in the throes of some emotional crisis which they reflect without actually describing. They were for me no more than a natural and instinctive relief from worries, hardships or despondencies that made it impossible for me to start or continue writing a novel. Some were even written at great speed, broken off abruptly to catch the mail and posted without any thought of publication. Later the idea of putting them together and filling up the gaps made me reclaim them from those friends most likely to have preserved my epistles; and these are the ones which are possibly the least unworthy—understandably enough, since we are always more open and at ease when talking about our feelings to one person in private than in the presence of someone unknown. That unknown third party is the reader, the public; and were it not that writing has a definite appeal—often painful, sometimes intoxicating, but ever irresistible—which makes us forget the unknown witness and be carried away by our topic, I don’t think we would ever have the courage to write about ourselves—unless we had a great deal of good to say…. And may the lovers of fiction not judge me too severely either.
GEORGE SAND, Lettres d’un voyageur