Middle range writers portray a decade or two. With hints of what came before and what will come after.
That’s very valuable. It enables you to focus on the details. That’s like appreciating the fine workmanship on a great piece of jewelry. And it shows you the times. How people lived at that moment. And it cultivates the taste. Not that I noticed any taste in the era in which we are living.
Examples of worthwhile middle range writers: Somerset Maugham, John O’Hara, Alphonse Daudet. Alphonse Daudet? If you are French I don’t have to explain who he is. The 19th century produced a wealth of middle range French writers. Because it produced so many great ones. The middle rangers have been neglected in English speaking lands in our era. But it wasn’t always so. At the turn into the 20th century, say in 1900, they were very popular in Anglo lands. Perhaps as a reaction to fading Victorianism. In Victorian times, it was common not to have French volumes out where people could see them.
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Great writers show you the century. All of it. Laid out on a plate. Its abysmal failures and its triumphs of vision that we can only envy. Moreover they also include all the virtues above of the middle range writers and almost none of their faults.
Examples of great writers: Oh, I will just give one because I think he is neglected in our lands, Robert Musil. It’s the nature of great writers that you know who they are! Or should, if you read enough.
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The greatest writers. I don’t know what to call them. The further up the great chain of writers you proceed, the more they escape our categories. Iconic? But you can’t call something iconic if you don’t know what the icon represents! But we throw around the word anyway! I’d hate to say that’s pathetic because I don’t want to exaggerate.
Homer.
There’s a populist groundwell lately on account of the general public having discovered Homer. It’s the nature of the greatest writers that they are perpetually rediscovered. The Adventures of Telemachus was an 18th century literary sensation. Nowadays, we have the translators of Homer on YouTube, courted by all the better podcasters.
We need to enjoy Homer before we forget about him again.
How beauteous mankind is! Oh brave new world that has such people in’t.
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