jasper Posted February 17, 2017 Report Share Posted February 17, 2017 Just what are they putting in the water ? Stewart Conn, Stuart A. Paterson, William McIlvanney, Hugh McIlvanney, Gordon Ferris, Graeme Macrae Burnet .... For a town that's taken such a socio-economic pounding in the last thirty years, it's amazing that so many very good writers have been spawned. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuncanEwart Posted February 18, 2017 Report Share Posted February 18, 2017 Maybe it has something to do with the socio-economic pounding you mention- adversity and poverty inspiring creativity. I was at university with Stuart A Paterson in the late eighties- when you spoke with a broad Ayrshire accent (even in the hallowed halls of Stirling University which had a reputation for giving working class children a chance) people thought you had straw coming out your ears and were basically a bit thick. So maybe then you use your creative writing to show them you are not. The same applies, I think, to the American South. It has always been viewed as the poor relation of the USA- poverty stricken, rural, backward, somehow different: the feared "other" to the enlightened founding ideals of the USA. But think of the writers this area has produced. Even today, people refer to "going down to Ayrshire" or "in deepest Ayrshire" as though it were a strange unknowable place to "outsiders": I think this sense of "otherness" is also a major spur to creativity. Or maybe @jasper they are putting something in the water. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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