WAYS OF WRIT I NG ABOUT ONESELF
63
Leonard Michaels:
I'm afraid t hat what I'm going to say w ill be repeat–
ing a litt le bit what you heard early this morning. I must a lso say I was
somewhat distressed listening to what was said, for the reason that it
was something like what I had
to
say, and also because it was so very
good . In any event, I am going to begin by saying that the title of this
litt le talk is "The Personal and the Individual."
Nothing should be easier than talking about ways in which I write
about myself, but I find it isn't easy at a ll. Indeed,
r
want to say before
anything else that a great prob lem for me, in writing about myself, is
how not to write
merely
about myself. I think the prob lem is very com–
mon among writers even if they are unaware of it. Basic elements of
writing-diction, grammar, tone, imagery, the patterns of sound made
by your sentences-will say a good deal ahout you (whether you are
conscious of it or not) so that it is possible for you to be writing about
yourself before you even know you arc writing about yourself. Regard–
less of your subject, thcsc basic elements, as well as countless and
immeasurable qua lities of mind, are at play in your writing and will
make your presence felt
to
a readcr as palpably as your handwriting.
You virtually write your namc, as it werc, before you literally sign your
name, every time you write .
Spinoza wrote his
Ethics
in Latin, a language nobody spoke anymore,
using a severcly logical method of argument. The last thing he wanted
was to make his prcsencc fe lt, or
to
write about himself. The way he
wrote his
Ethics
was rather likc the way he lived-detcrmincd to remain
obscure, uncompromiscd by a recognizable personal identity in the pub–
Iic world. The impersona I pll rity of his
J-:thics,
thcn, cou Idn 't ha ve been
more self-expressive. The book wasn't published in his lifetime partly
because it would havc heen recognized as his book. He was, in his
obscurity, too well known.
Shakespearc isn't discoverable in a personal way in anything he
wrote, and yet it is gencrally agreed that we know what Shakespearc
personally wrote, or what only he is likely
to
havc written. His sonnets,
which are among the most personal poems cver written, are remarkably
ani ficia lin thei r qua tra ins,
COLI
plets, puns, and pa radoxes-devices th:n
are manifcstly impersonal. It is curiously relevant that, in Shakespeare's
various signatures, he never spelled his name the same way twice, rather
as if he thought his personal identity had very little
to
do with any par–
tiCLdar way of spclling his name. A particular way, always the same,
would simply be individual.
Montaigne said of his own essays, "I have no morc made this book
than this book has made me." I think he meant his writing revealed him
