"Occasionally I come across a book which I feel has been written for me and for me only."
Notes to Self are longer journal entries from Seven Yrs Ago. I was 21 mid-2014.
Read WH Auden! From “Prose” Vol. IV 1956-1962
“Very few of us can truthfully boast that we have never condemned a book or even an author or hearsay, but quite a lot of us have never praised one we had not read.”
“Bad art is always with us, but any given work of art is always bad in a period way; the particular kind of badness it exhibits will pass away to be succeeded by some other kind. It is unnecessary, therefore, to attack it, because it will perish anyway….
“The only sensible procedure for a critic is to keep silent about works which he believes to be bad, while at the same time vigorously campaigning for those which he believes to be good, especially if they are being neglected or underestimated by the public.”
“Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.”
“Attacking bad books is not only a waste of time, but also bad for the character. If I find a book really bad, the only interest I can derive from writing about it has to come from myself, from such display of intelligence, wit and malice as I can contrive. One cannot review a bad book without showing off.”
“‘Contemporary’ is a much abused term. My contemporaries are simply those who are on earth while I am alive, whether they be babies or centenarians.”
“A writer, or, at least, a poet, is always being asked by people who should know better: ‘Whom do you write for?’ The question is, of course, a silly one, but I can give it a silly answer. Occasionally I come across a book which I feel has been written for me and for me only. Like a jealous lover, I don’t want anybody else to hear of it. To have a million such readers, unaware of each other’s existence, to be read with passion and never talked about, is the daydream, surely, of every author.”
For commentary seven years later, go here.