All the Ms: How Deep Does Culture Go?

In a previous post on the Ms (the list where I try out all the fiction books in the "M" section of the library--try out as in, I read the first chapter or first 10 pages), I comment that "[s]o-called great authors are as much slaves to trends as anyone else."

The issue here is a fascinating one. It is also one that I change my mind about every time I reflect on the issue:

How much are artists a product of their time periods and how much do they transcend those time periods due to their imaginations? 

On the one hand, Shakespeare definitely reflects not only the tropes and plot ideas of contemporary (to himself) artists, Shakespeare also reflects his own culture. He reflects political and historical matters that interested his audiences and would have been common conversational gambits in the streets and taverns. And he uses the language of his world. His mindset and perspective reflects the beliefs of that time. 

On the other hand, audiences still enjoy Shakespeare today--despite changes (some changes) in customs and language and interests. His plays are remarkably translatable--not only into other languages but between mediums. Idioms and characters from Shakespeare are common fodder in many cultures. One reason could be that people adapt easily to a variety of art forms. Another reason could be that Shakespeare captures eternal aspects of the human condition, experiences that transcend Elizabethan and Jacobean England. 

This past semester, I distributed an article about Dickens and Poe to my Literature students. Was Dickens influenced in the writing of David Copperfield by meeting Poe? Did he use aspects of Poe's life in the creation of the character of David Copperfield? 

I chose this article for three reason:

1. To underscore that true understanding/knowledge of an author can not be AI-derived since AI does little more than perpetuate stereotypes. The author of the article, Harry Lee Poe, points out that many scholars connect Dickens to David Copperfield. However--

Jane Smiley has observed that Dickens loved David Copperfield 'as if it were his autobiography', then added insightfully in contrast or defiance of the prevailing view, 'but in fact the incidents of the novel and the incidents of Dickens' early life were quite different.' Smiley goes on to argue that David Copperfield evokes Dickens' life without relating it. (my emphasis)

2. To underscore that the author of the article is only able to argue that David Copperfield closely resembles Edgar Allan Poe by KNOWING specific information about both Dickens and Poe. Dickens and Poe did meet; in addition, Poe reviewed Dickens' work (positively!); and Dickens and Poe corresponded. Dickens later visited Poe's mother-in-law. The end of the article presents 16 points of biographical information about Poe's life. 

3. To underscore that the biography-argument approach to literature (authors are the product of their times and upbringing) is not a given. As the author states, 

Though David Copperfield has flashes of autobiographical moments, as all of Dickens's novels do, it succeeds as a novel because it is not about Dickens. He has the necessary distance from the character of David Copperfield to create a work of art - of imagination. The imagination collects up a great storehouse of experiences from which the artist creates a work of fiction. Source criticism provides a fascinating insight into the world from which a writer fashions fiction. (my emphasis)

The passage reminds me of a quote I use to begin Chapter 4 in my thesis. In Ngaio Marsh's When in Rome, Alleyn reflects:

The Van der Veghels broke into excited comment. Grant, they warmly informed him, had based the whole complex of imagery in his book upon [the well]. "As the deeper reaches of Simon's personality were explored--" on and on they went, explaining the work to its author. Alleyn, who admired the book, thought they were probably right but laid far too much insistence on an essentially delicate process of thought.

I would substitute "delicate" with "ambiguous" or "multifaceted." LOTS of conscious and unconscious elements go into forming a brain that produces a piece of art or writing, from genetics to culture to upbringing to other artists to personality to choices and, yes, imagination. 

The article about Dickens and Poe:

 Poe, Harry Lee. "Poe, Dickens, and David Copperfield: Biography – but Whose?" The Dickensian 115.509 (2019): 272. ProQuest.