Writers must intentionally shock their psyches to generate charged prose.
Evidence
You are looking for the one detail that lights up the page: one line, to perturb or challenge the reader, make him feel acknowledged, and yet estranged. The reader should be a welcome guest in your house of invention, but he shouldn’t put his feet up on the furniture. Just when he’s settling, you need to open the gap between them and us: just let in a flash of light, to show the gap is there. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 873 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Like every writer, I’m drawn by unlikely juxtapositions, precisely dated and once-only collisions between people from different worlds. In 1922, Johns was working in London as an RAF recruiter. Into his office walked an inferior physical specimen with a strange air of moral superiority. It was T. E. Lawrence, looking to enlist under an alias. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 962 (
#exemplifies, via linked claim)
Categorization
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
- XREF: connects to: Writers should leave readers hungry and mildly estranged, not fully accommodated — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 873; Writers are drawn to unlikely juxtapositions and once-only historical collisions. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 962; Mediated images of the world produce a felt smallness that spurs and frustrates writing. — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1204 (+1 more)
Related
- Writers should leave readers hungry and mildly estranged, not fully accommodated (similarity 0.87)
- Writers are drawn to unlikely juxtapositions and once-only historical collisions. (similarity 0.87)
- Writers start as constant readers fascinated by the artifice of shape and falsification. (similarity 0.80)
Broader Connections
- Writers should leave readers hungry and mildly estranged, not fully accommodated
#expands(0.75) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 873 - Writers are drawn to unlikely juxtapositions and once-only historical collisions.
#exemplifies(0.65) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 962