Rebecca West’s The Fountain Overflows. {Photograph} by Sophie Haigney.
The paragraph is probably an undercelebrated unit of writing. Sentences get their due, as do particular person phrases, however paragraphs? On the Overview, we’ve requested writers to pick a favourite paragraph and write a paragraph—or a number of!—on it. That is our first piece in a periodic collection.
Sure, I feel you three have been fairly completely satisfied. However I doubt if Cordelia has loved a single second of her childhood. It has all been a torment to her. She isn’t egocentric. It’s not what she has lacked that’s an agony to her, it’s what all of us have lacked. She has hated it that every one our garments have been so shabby and that the home is so damaged down. She has hated it that I’ve all the time been so late in paying Cousin Ralph the hire. She has hated it that we’ve so few associates. She hates it that your father has gone away, however not as you hate it. She would have most well-liked a fairly atypical father, as long as he stayed with us. She needs she might have lived a life like the opposite ladies in school. Your father’s writing, my taking part in, and no matter goes with these issues, and the enjoyment we’ve had, aren’t any compensation to her for what she has misplaced. Now, don’t dare to despise her for this want to be commonplace, to be safe, to throw away what we’ve of distinction. It’s not she who’s odd in hating poverty and”—she felt for the phrase—“eccentricity. It’s you who’re odd in not hating them. Be grateful for this oddity, which has introduced you secure by means of horrible years. However don’t suppose you owe it to any advantage in yourselves. You owe it fully to your musical presents. The music I’ve taught you to play should have made you understand that there’s a nice deal in life which isn’t affected by what occurs to you. Additionally the method has been extra assist to you than you understand. If you’re not smooth, it’s as a result of the method you’ve gotten mastered, reminiscent of it’s, has hardened you. If God had not made you in a position to play you’ll be as helpless as Cordelia, and it’s not her fault however God’s that she can’t play, and as God has no faults allow us to now drop the topic.
This paragraph seems late in Rebecca West’s The Fountain Overflows, which is probably going the novel I’ve reread extra typically than every other. And this passage is one which I return to on a regular basis, each when life is difficult and when life appears lenient sufficient to grant me a second of reprieve. On the heart of the novel are three sisters: Rose and Mary, twins who’re prodigies on the piano, and Cordelia, their unmusical sister who desires of changing into a world-famous violinist. This paragraph comes after Cordelia’s dream is dashed, and Mamma, their mom, who’s a genius on the piano, speaks sternly to Rose and Mary and their brother Richard Quin, admonishing them.
There are a lot of issues I really like concerning the paragraph. As I’m typing it out, I’m shocked how lengthy it’s. (In truth, lots of West’s finest paragraphs are lengthy, typically occupying a whole web page or two). Readily, West permits a personality to talk with out authorial interventions or interruptions from different characters. Had been I discussing this in a writing class, feedback could be certain to come up that this isn’t the proper solution to write dialogue, however who cares about the proper method or the improper solution to write dialogue when one can hearken to a rare character like Mamma speak, as thrilling as listening to Shakespeare or a grasp pianist? The very best writing—not solely lengthy passages of description however dialogues, monologues—all the time has a component of music and a component of poetry in it. This paragraph has each in abundance.
And what Mamma says—“Be grateful for this oddity, which has introduced you secure by means of horrible years. … The music I’ve taught you to play should have made you understand that there’s a nice deal in life which isn’t affected by what occurs to you”—is what I typically repeat to myself, typically in a variation for my very own scenario: “Be grateful for your oddity, which has introduced you secure by means of horrible years. … The books you’ve learn and the books you’ve written should have made you understand that there’s a nice deal in life which isn’t affected by what occurs to you.” Some folks—maybe many, one imagines—are able to disagree with the sentiment, which works in opposition to a type of Americanness by which a lot of life (and literature) needs to be seen and skilled solely by means of the lens of the self: my angle, my story, my id. Nicely, the extra cause for me to have fun a special sentiment together with Mamma.
The very last thing I want to say about this paragraph—and likewise about this novel—is that many writers can write misunderstanding properly, however Rebecca West is supreme at writing about understanding. Mamma, in her common clear-eyed method, has understood every of her members of the family, however much more than that, she articulates her understanding in essentially the most exact and eloquent method, with out judgment. If this isn’t what literature is for, what else then?
Yiyun Li is the writer of 11 books of fiction and nonfiction, together with the novels The E-book of Goose and The place Causes Finish. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Windham-Campbell Prize, a PEN/Jean Stein E-book Award, and a PEN/Malamud Award, amongst different honors. She teaches at Princeton College.
