Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (The Empson Lectures)

by Margaret Atwood

Hardcover, 2002

Status

Missing

Call number

808.3

Genres

Collection

Literature

Publication

Cambridge University Press (2002), Edition: First Edition, 248 pages

Description

What is the role of the writer? Prophet? High Priest of Art? Court Jester? Or witness to the real world? Looking back on her own childhood and writing career, Margaret Atwood examines the metaphors which writers of fiction and poetry have used to explain - or excuse! - their activities, looking at what costumes they have assumed, what roles they have chosen to play. In her final chapter she takes up the challenge of the title: if a writer is to be seen as 'gifted', who is doing the giving and what are the terms of the gift? Margaret Atwood's wide reference to other writers is balanced by anecdotes from her own experiences, both in Canada and on the international scene. The lightness of her touch is underlined by a seriousness about the purpose and the pleasures of writing, and by a deep familiarity with the myths and traditions of Western literature.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member mrstreme

Negotiating With The Dead: A Writer on Writing was a scholarly study about writers, readers and the stories that connect them, written by Margaret Atwood. A collection of six essays based on a series of lectures given by Atwood at Cambridge University, it’s an intelligent look into what makes

writers tick and the challenges faced by the writer, especially female ones.

Each essay examined a different aspect of the writing process, such as dealing with fame, mingling with the dead and the conversation between the writer and his/her reader. Atwood added many stories from her past, which I found the most fascinating. She also included lots of references to other writers and poets, including Dante, Shakespeare, Alice Munro and Adrienne Rich – to help strengthen her many thoughts about writing.

This book reminded me Joyce Carol Oates’ The Faith of a Writer. Both books require concentration and offer provocative questions about the art of writing. Fans of Atwood may be turned off by her academic tone in Negotiating With The Dead, but if you can follow along and love to read about writers, then this collection by Atwood is a must-read.

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LibraryThing member AuntieClio

Negotiating With the Dead is a series of six essays based upon the Empson Lectures Margaret Atwood delivered at the University of Cambridge in 2000. These lectures/essays discuss big questions like: "What is art?", "What is Writing?," "Why do Writers Write?", and "What is the relationship between

Writer and Reader?"

To each of these questions, Margaret Atwood applies her prodigious thoughtfulness, knowledge and wit. And, while not entirely useless for another creative soul looking for company, there is far too much navel gazing going on.

I usually enjoy reading/talking to other artists about their creative processes and their thoughts on creativity. Stephen King's On Writing is an excellent example of discussing the craft. Negotiating With the Dead, on the other hand, is LitCrit theory, vague and ethereal with only questions to circle around.

The biggest question I walked away with is, "Does it really matter?" If the muse calls, one answers regardless of theories about why. I'm much more interested in knowing Atwood's process and her thoughts on craftsmanship.

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LibraryThing member Niecierpek

The book developed from a series of six lectures Atwood delivered at the University of Cambridge in 2000 on being a writer. I read two books recently that attempted the same thing in a way: Elizabeth Costello, and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana. Coetze fictionalized his lectures and actually

added the character of a writer (Elizabeth Costello) to present them, and Eco’s book held great literary promise, but did not deliver in the end; it concentrated on the legacy of comic books. Atwood, on the other hand, wrote a zestful and delightfully erudite treaty on being a writer, full of insights and literary references which is a pleasure to read. Atwood’s way of thinking appealed, as usual, to me. I just felt that illusive satisfaction coming from every line I read.

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LibraryThing member samfsmith

An interesting book on writing that will really get you thinking. It's not a writing manual, and not a prescription for success or failure. Atwood doesn't answer any questions, but she poses plenty - and they are real head scratchers. This is education at its best, forcing the student to think for

themselves.

And it's so impressive to see how many poets and writers Atwood quotes. She provides the reader with plenty of examples to illustrate her questions.

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LibraryThing member Nickelini

An interesting visit to this author's mind. She makes it all look so easy and logical. An inspiring read.

LibraryThing member jharlton

I like some of what Atwood has to say. I do feel that she is a little too omniscient at times, especially in the last chapter where she lets us know what the dead really want. But, she does make some fine points and does it with tact. The literary allusions got me down though, made me feel that I

had read nothing at all. This book leans heavily on the ideas of previous texts, but I think Atwood shows that this book, like all fiction and poetry, must.

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LibraryThing member amyfaerie

Atwood's attempt at the genre of writing book is fantastic.

LibraryThing member edella

What is the role of the writer? Prophet? High Priest of Art? Court Jester? Or witness to the real world? Looking back on her own childhood and the development of her writing career, Margaret Atwood examines the metaphors which writers of fiction and poetry have used to explain - or excuse! - their

activities, looking at what costumes they have seen fit to assume, what roles they have chosen to play. In her final chapter she takes up the challenge of the book's title: if a writer is to be seen as "gifted", who is doing the giving and what are the terms of the gift? Atwood's wide and eclectic reference to other writers, living and dead, is balanced by anecdotes from her own experiences as a writer, both in Canada and on the international scene. The lightness of her touch is underlined by a seriousness about the purpose and the pleasures of writing, and by a deep familiarity with the myths and traditions of western literature.

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LibraryThing member Trippy

Atwood's delightful commentary on the art of writing...a definate for any Atwood fan!

LibraryThing member ALincolnNut

Acclaimed novelist Margaret Atwood, whose work includes the modern classic "The Handmaid's Tale," was asked to deliver the Empson Lectures at the University of Cambridge in 2000. Those six lectures provide the basis for this non-fiction book. Subtitled "A Writer on Writing," "Negotiating with the

Dead" is not a primer on how to write, but reflections on six uncomfortable dilemmas facing every author.

While the lectures are intended for a broad audience, rather than specialists, and while Atwood claims to have followed that mandate in preparing them, I found the book turgid and nearly impossible to read. I appreciated Atwood's choice of themes, but found little consonance in her explorations. I am sure that I missed much of the literary symbolism in her essays; more often, though, I was simply too bored to care. Perhaps longtime novelists or long-ago college English majors will appreciate this book.

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LibraryThing member ljhliesl

I love Margaret Atwood��s pondering and phrases. Discussing an impersonal society, she says ��it��s a cog eat cog world.��

LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd

I started this book before, and had trouble getting into it. All I can say about that is, the timing must have been wrong. I loved every word of it this time. Margaret Atwood writes about writing. How could it NOT be wonderful? (The only Atwood novel I have read---or even been tempted to read---is

Alias Grace. I admired it, enjoyed it, and wished the subject matter of Atwood's other fiction was more to my taste, because her writing was exquisite.) This book grew out of a series of lectures Ms. Atwood gave at Cambridge in 2000. There were six lectures, so there are six chapters in the book, each dealing with a different aspect of the writerly existence. Roughly translated and conflated a bit, the topics are "what is a writer, anyway?", "the duplicity of being a writer", "who or what are you writing for", and "the writer's quest for immortality". Or, as Atwood says, with a wit that delighted me throughout the book, "Perhaps I have reached the age at which those who have been through the wash-and-spin cycle a few times become seized by the notion that their own experience in the suds maybe relevant to others." Despite her disclaimer that she is "not a scholar or a literary theoretician", she knows an awful lot, and dispenses a good bit of that knowledge in Negotiating With the Dead, in a manner both enlightening and entertaining. I expect I will return again and again to this collection, and that I will, notwithstanding my general aversion to dystopian fiction, read another Atwood novel before too long.

Review written January 2015

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LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri

Plus a half star. It would have been fabulous to be at her lectures on which the book was based. The philosophy was less convincing on the page but the moments of personal experience were touching.

LibraryThing member Lukerik

Very interesting, learned, but easy to read and funny at times. I’d recommend this to anyone who habitually reads.

Atwood opens quite innocuously with a memoir and description of the literary scene in mid-20th C Canada. There’s an interesting discussion of the relationship between the author and

the reader (pretty much like in Stephen King’s Misery) and also of the writer’s relationship with themselves (as in The Dark Half). She also discusses the religious aspects of writing. The final chapter is actually rather profound.

So a book about the art of writing is also itself a work of art. Bloody typical of Atwood to do something like that.

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LibraryThing member Ma_Washigeri

Plus a half star. It would have been fabulous to be at her lectures on which the book was based. The philosophy was less convincing on the page but the moments of personal experience were touching.

LibraryThing member canread

The concept was good, but there was far too much angst coming from someone who has had every success in her chosen field.

LibraryThing member paisley1974

Margaret Atwood's insightful mind turns inward here, reflecting on her the writing life.

LibraryThing member BookConcierge

2.5**

Alternate or Subtitle: A Writer on Writing

Atwood was asked to give the Empson lectures at Cambridge University in 2000. The series of six presentations were intended for scholars, students and the general public. This book is the result of that experience.

Somehow, I’ve found myself reading

books about writing this past year. I read Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing last month and am just about to finish listening to Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. I cannot help but compare them, and I find this one better than Bradbury’s, but not so helpful (or entertaining) as King’s

Atwood clearly gave a lot of thought into the lecture series and she references many writers and books in a range of genres, though she does tend to rely most on classics / literary fiction and poetry. She does have some very interesting points to make, and questions to ask. For example, this excerpt:
In what ways, if any, does talent set you apart? Does it exempt you from the duties and responsibilities expected of others? Or does it load you up with even more duties and responsibilities, but of a different kind? Are you to be a detached observer…? Or ought you to be a dedicated spokesperson for the downtrodden of this earth…?

However, the style seemed stilted and detached. Dryly academic. I found myself anxious for her to get her point made and move on.

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