Learning to Handle Criticism “À la recherche du temps perdu,” was Proust’s title for his major opus. First translated as “Remembrance of Things Past,” it was later perhaps more accurately, if not as resonantly, called, “In Search of Lost Time.” Graham Greene called him the greatest novelist of the 20th century. If I include Proust here, it is because I also posit him as a model for my students. The admirable way he handled getting rejected by one publisher after another is a subject for you to ponder. As if anticipating Noah Lukeman’s emphasis on the importance of, “The First Five Pages,” Proust wrote and rewrote his own now famous first page -- which begins, For a long time I have been in the habit of going to bed early -- 12 times. And yet it was precisely this opening passage that got him -— equally famously – rejected again and again. “I do not see how the story of a gentleman turning and returning himself over in bed can interest the reader.. etc, etc…” one publisher said of the writer who not only influenced Graham Greene but Jack Kerouac too; and who can count the number of writers in between? Usually I discourage students from choosing vanity press publishing. But if you possess the intuitive genius of Marcel Proust, you’d be wise not to listen to me. When he paid to publish himself, not only did he get rave reviews, but a legit house offered him a contract for the rest. --and we all know what happened after that.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 18:12:15 +0000
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