No one could write exactly like Mark Twain or Virginia Woolf today, of course (see yesterday's post)--nor would anyone be silly enough to make the attempt. What I was saying was that certain writers pay such close attention to language and to the culture around them that their writing never seems stale or out-of-date.
Perhaps it is just this combination that is lacking in our current literary moment. Most new novel or short story writing feels like it has been workshopped to death--by that I mean, every word is so carefully placed, every metaphor so colorful, that one forgets how little the writer is actually saying. At the other extreme--some writers have something important to tell us, but lack the imaginative tools to make that story come alive. The combination of striking, imaginative language and cultural relevance would feel startling if I came across it. I think the author of The Wind Done Gone and Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, Alice Randall, is onto something in this regard; I'm not so sure I would call her an author of groundbreaking literary works, but I do think she's tapping into something important in our culture and our language, and I applaud her for it.
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