Annie Dillard Because I Had To Climb A Mountain To Get It Analysis

Annie Dillard’s writing advice is clinically ambitious. By mustering the bravery to cut unnecessary material, Dillard says that writers can make their writing accessible to their audience. But if they don’t they will lose their readers to movies like a female butterfly loses her mate to a flashy cardboard butterfly (Writing 18). Her words are harsh: “Why not shoot yourself, actually, rather than finish one more excellent manuscript on which to gag the world?” (Writing 12). Despite her unforgiving tone, Dillard’s writing, prose and poetry, only sometimes satisfies her steep expectations.
Dillard’s writing advice stems from her belief that many readers want writing to exploit the unique abilities of writing. She says, “The written word is weak. …show more content…
Many writers feel tempted to include material that, if cut, would strengthen the piece. She elaborates with a metaphor of an amateur photographer who submits the same photo each year for judgement even though it is always rejected. When asked why he does this, the photographer says, “Because I had to climb a mountain to get it” (Writing 6). Dillard asks of writing, “Is it pertinent, is it courteous for us to learn what it cost the writer?” (Writing 7). For Dillard, the answer is a rhetorical no. Too often work which should be cut is kept because the writer has a personal connection to it, like the photographer’s connection to his journey up the …show more content…
“Without You,” for example, is eight long (Sallies 8). Brevity does not always translate to utility, but in this poem it does. “Each day grows old, no minute ever new” (Sallies 8). Dillard uses the title “Without You” as an opening clause the sentence in the body of the poem. In eight words the poem evokes how an estranged love one can distort time to make short spans feel longer. The blank space below the one-line poem mirrors the implied lengthening of time while the short poem is actual length of the