Finley Lectures on Writing

All intelligence is "simplification," and writing is just another way of simplifying the world, John H. Finley '25, former Eliot Professor of Greek Literature Emeritus, told a standing-room-only crowd in Harvard Hall yesterday.

Finley's rambling hour-long speech, part of the Writing Center lecture series, focused on the reasons a writer sits down to write something.

"Since I've retired, I've had time to brood rather unsuccessfully on that question," he said.

Finley said, "One needs real modesty in writing--write not to overfill the already filled Harvard catalogue but because the world is interesting. Write for the joy of it."

Drawing often on Greek literature to make his points, Finely said that his years of studying the Greek classics had given him a clearer perspective on life than he "could have gotten in Ashtabula, Ohio, for instance."

Finley said he had once thought he was writing for some higher goal, but wondered aloud whether he had been "writing all these years just to be speaking in Harvard Hall today."

Finley also talked about his experiences with Johnny Carson when Carson was here at Harvard recently to accept his Hasty Pudding Man of the Year award. Finley said he had talked to Carson about knowledge, the world and the individual's place in it, and added, "He seemed to understand it all quite well."