Negotiating With The Dead review
Jun. 14th, 2011 01:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearI recently discovered how much I enjoy reading other writers' thoughts about writing, so I purchased a copy of Negotiating With The Dead by Margaret Atwood, in which she discusses various aspects of writing, including choice of audience, the dual nature of being a writer, the purpose of and reasons for writing, as well as other topics.
The book was much funnier and more self-deprecating than I had expected, based on the little I've heard about Atwood's character. However, she herself makes the point in the book that expectations of an author's personality based on their writing are spurious at best. It was also very profound, identifying many things that were familiar to me as a writer myself, but in ways that delved deep into the subject and used unusual imagery.
It moved more away from the humour and more towards the profundity as it went along, which was a shame as I liked the balance of the first chapter - but it was all excellently written and very interesting.
The book was much funnier and more self-deprecating than I had expected, based on the little I've heard about Atwood's character. However, she herself makes the point in the book that expectations of an author's personality based on their writing are spurious at best. It was also very profound, identifying many things that were familiar to me as a writer myself, but in ways that delved deep into the subject and used unusual imagery.
It moved more away from the humour and more towards the profundity as it went along, which was a shame as I liked the balance of the first chapter - but it was all excellently written and very interesting.
