David Leavitt on Literary Envy

William Haskins · Aug 24, 2007

What writer--or reader--hasn't experienced it? That stab of alarm at seeing someone else praised, or that surge of schadenfreude at seeing someone else trashed. And afterwards, the faint stench of guilt rising like steam from the wound, with its odor of corroded metal.

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link found on andrewsullivan.com, who also included clive james' amusing verse:

The book of my enemy has been remaindered
And I am pleased.
In vast quantities it has been remaindered
Like a van-load of counterfeit that has been seized
And sits in piles in a police warehouse,
My enemy's much-prized effort sits in piles
In the kind of bookshop where remaindering occurs.
Great, square stacks of rejected books and, between them, aisles
One passes down reflecting on life's vanities,
Pausing to remember all those thoughtful reviews
Lavished to no avail upon one's enemy's book --
For behold, here is that book
Among these ranks and banks of duds,
These ponderous and seeminly irreducible cairns
Of complete stiffs.
The book of my enemy has been remaindered
And I rejoice.

Sunnyside · Aug 24, 2007

Ooooh, that's good stuff. Right in the vein of Blake's "The Poison Tree". . . . bwah ha ha . . .

*dreading the remainder table myself*

Yeeks.

Kate Thornton · Aug 24, 2007

Excellent - and yes, that guilt rising like a rancid steam...

Azraelsbane · Aug 24, 2007

I <3 Blake.

Posion Tree, Marriage of Heaven & Hell, and those engravings... Such a rebel *swoon*

Okay, back to business. I definitely know this feeling, and the guilt is killer.

Will Lavender · Aug 24, 2007

Hilarious how everyone jumps into the comments and starts trying to guess who Leavitt is talking about.

Claudia Gray · Aug 24, 2007

I side with those that say envy is best used as fuel -- we all feel it, but our job is to then get past the pettiness, ask ourselves how we can get that, and go for it!

Perks · Aug 24, 2007

When I experience literary envy, so far it's been only in reading things I wish I'd written. Sometimes a paragraph or a phrase feels like it should have originated in my head and there's a cheated empty spot where it should have been and the sneaking green suspicion that someone's been thieving when I was daydreaming instead of writing.

Other than that, I haven't felt envious at the positive reviews some people get. Sometimes bewilderment-bordering-on-indignation, but not envy. Oh wait... I think I'm splitting hairs...

David Leavitt on Literary Envy

William Haskins

poet

Sunnyside

Kate Thornton

Still Happy to be Here. Or Anywhere

Azraelsbane

Agony is defeat

Will Lavender

Everything is what it seems.

Claudia Gray

Perks

delicate #!&@*#! flower