Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker
"We may properly and profitably amuse ourselves by distinguishing those writers who are respectively 'father-ridden,' 'son-ridden,' and 'ghost-ridden.' It is the mark of the father-ridden that they endeavor to impose the idea directly upon the mind and senses, believing that his is the whole of the work... Among the son-ridden, we may place such writers as Swinburne, in whom the immense ingenuity and sensuous loveliness of the manner is developed out of all proportion to the tenuity of the ruling idea... The ghost-ridden writer, on the other hand, conceives that the emotion which he feels is in itself sufficient to awaken response, without undergoing discipline of a thorough incarnation, and without the coherence that derives from reference to a controlling idea... It may serve as a starting point to say that, whereas failure in the father may be roughly summed up as a failure of thought and a failure in the son is a failure in action, failure in the ghost is a failure in wisdom--not the wisdom of the brain, but the more intimate and instinctive wisdom of the heart and bowels."
5 Quotes
"We may properly and profitably amuse ourselves by distinguishing those writers who are respectively 'father-ridden,' 'son-ridden,' and 'ghost-ridden.' It is the mark of the father-ridden that they endeavor to impose the idea directly upon the mind and senses, believing that his is the whole of the work... Among the son-ridden, we may place such writers as Swinburne, in whom the immense ingenuity and sensuous loveliness of the manner is developed out of all proportion to the tenuity of the ruling idea... The ghost-ridden writer, on the other hand, conceives that the emotion which he feels is in itself sufficient to awaken response, without undergoing discipline of a thorough incarnation, and without the coherence that derives from reference to a controlling idea... It may serve as a starting point to say that, whereas failure in the father may be roughly summed up as a failure of thought and a failure in the son is a failure in action, failure in the ghost is a failure in wisdom--not the wisdom of the brain, but the more intimate and instinctive wisdom of the heart and bowels."
"يحسن بنا أن نُمتع أنفسنا على نحو لائق ومثمر بتمييز أولئك الكتاب الذين هم على التوالي "أسرى الأب"، و"أسرى الابن"، و"أسرى الشبح". إن سمة الكاتب الأسير للأب هي سعيه لفرض الفكرة مباشرة على العقل والحواس، معتقداً أن الفكرة هي جوهر العمل كله... ومن بين أسرى الابن، يمكننا أن نضع كتاباً مثل سوينبرن، الذي تتطور لديه البراعة الفائقة والجمال الحسي للأسلوب بشكل مبالغ فيه لا يتناسب مع رقة الفكرة المحورية... أما الكاتب الأسير للشبح، من ناحية أخرى، فيتوهم أن العاطفة التي يختبرها كافية بحد ذاتها لإثارة الاستجابة، دون أن تخضع لانضباط تجسيد عميق، ودون التماسك الذي ينبع من الإحالة إلى فكرة ضابطة... وقد يكون منطلقاً لنا القول بأن، بينما يمكن تلخيص الإخفاق لدى أسير الأب تقريباً بأنه إخفاق في الفكر، والإخفاق لدى أسير الابن هو إخفاق في الفعل، فإن الإخفاق لدى أسير الشبح هو إخفاق في الحكمة – لا حكمة العقل، بل الحكمة الأكثر حميمية وغريزية للقلب والأحشاء."
Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker
"If God made everything, did He make the Devil' This is the kind of embarrassing question which any child can ask before breakfast, and for which no neat and handy formula is provided in the Parents' Manual…Later in life, however, the problem of time and the problem of evil become desperately urgent, and it is useless to tell us to run away and play and that we shall understand when we are older. The world has grown hoary, and the questions are still unanswered."
"إن كان الله خالق كل شيء، فهل خلق الشيطان؟ هذا سؤال محرج من النوع الذي قد يطرحه أي طفل قبل الإفطار، ولا يجد له الوالدان إجابة جاهزة أو صيغة واضحة وميسرة في دليل الآباء. لكن مع تقدم العمر، تصبح قضية الزمان ومشكلة الشر ملحة للغاية، ويغدو من غير المجدي أن يُقال لنا اذهبوا والعبوا، وأننا سندرك الأمر حين نبلغ الرشد. لقد شاخت الدنيا، وما زالت الأسئلة بلا جواب."
Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker
"The more genuinely creative [the writer] is, the more he will want his work to develop in accordance with its own nature, and to stand independent of himself"
Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker
"It will be sent that, although the writer's love is verily a jealous love, it is a jealousy for and not of his creatures. He will tolerate no interference either with them or between them and himself."
Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker
"The making of miracles to edification was as ardently admired by pious Victorians as it was sternly discouraged by Jesus of Nazareth. Not that the Victorians were unique in this respect. Modern writers also indulge in edifying miracles though they generally prefer to use them to procure unhappy endings, by which piece of thaumaturgy they win the title of realists."
Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the Maker
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