There may not have been much really new to me here, only in that I’ve taken classes, courses, seminars, and read a lot on writing, but the manner in which this essay was written–and of course, the time–was interesting in its presentation.
I’m not real sure what the ending chapter summary is saying, though. It appears that Longinus first claims freedom to be a necessary path to seeking and reaching sublimity of speech and writing, and then says that that times of war may indeed inhibit as our passions our focused elsewhere. Wealth too, he claims, seems to build a prison as our natures then leads into extravagances and eventually, "breed ostentation, and vanity, and luxury," and our progeny then raised towards insolence and lawlessness and shamelessness."
What I take from this reading is a soberness towards the craft, and the reminder of the need for "story" that is worthy and to tell it with passion. And though I’m likely not quite getting the gist of the final chapter, I would like to have the wealth that would allow the luxury of writing all day, every day, without the worry of reality knocking at the door of my mansion…er, cabin in the woods.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology