On late style
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In the latest issue of Boston Review, Nicholas Delbanco has a deft and thoughtful essay called “Lastingness: How Growing Old Shapes Aesthetic Vision†that ought to be required reading for anyone considering the relationship of creativity and time.
Delbanco, it should be said, is a contributor toThe Times’ book pages; most recently, he’s written for us about Janet Malcolm and Malcolm Lowry. (Hmm, I think I see a through line here.)
In “Lastingness,†he ruminates on the peculiar challenges of the aging artist: to avoid repetition, to maintain stamina and commitment, to persevere. “I can remember,†he writes, “when each morning seemed a burnished, shining thing, when every afternoon and night brought with it the possibility of something or someone not known before. Today there’s very little new beneath the fictive sun.â€
And yet, Delbanco continues, “a writer must believe that a tale’s invented incidents are ratified by telling, that made-up characters are worth describing, worth the damning or the saving. ... The name of the shipwrecked is legion, their number beyond counting, yet every once in a great while a storied hero manages to sail between the dangers safely, and the song gets sung.â€
David L. Ulin