Should author Rhys Hughes be regarded as a Welsh Realist Author?
I think that perhaps underneath it all he aspires to be. How’s this for a semi-admission? “Pretending to be an ambassador of reality, in the mode of Hemingway, is rank presumption. He’s a superb example of sparsity as a logarithm for ego, a messiah of selfishness. At least I get my pomposity out in the open. This question of egotism is an important one for writers to address and chopping adjectives isn’t going to mitigate a painful swelling. It’s too late for me—even my eminently practical girlfriend can’t save me now—but I issue this warning to all minimalists who think they are safe…There’s a more spiritless reason for my exuberant approach. It’s an easy way of strutting in public, of reclaiming all that time I wasted in my youth reading archaic books and writing unpublished stories.” The Welshness is not disputed, any more than the fact that this highly prolific writer is an author!
