Comments on: On Writers

By: IntrigueMe

IntrigueMe — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:47:26 +0000

So really you’re saying we should love Tiger Woods because he’s a great golfer, regardless if he cheats on his wife. lol, sorry. I had to.

By: The roundups will continue until morale improves @ In the Land of the Lotus Eaters

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:15:48 +0000

[...] was hoping to generate some discourse with my last post, but it would seem the world according to five people other than myself agrees with me. No one [...]

By: Noel

Noel — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:23:32 +0000

So did I tell you I wanted to get the word “storyteller” tattooed around my left wrist? Thought against it. But the sentiment stands. I think this humble look at writing as work is what grounds writers. I can’t think of a single doctor who goes about thinking that he/she is a god for what they do. They do a job.
I have an issue with books that are sold based on the story of the author. This is why I don’t read as many memoirs as I used to. There was an entire case of plagiarism based on a woman who stole an entire novel about a girl who comes from a conservative Indian family and finds the willingness to break free and fall in love. Not the best story/plot, yes, but what sold the book was the sensationalism behind the woman who ‘wrote’ it where she too had a similar background. The book was sold on that. And to find that it was all a theft seemed to put into the idea that maybe even her entire life was a lie.
I digress. I can’t help but feel that yes, there is a reason for storytelling, but it is a job. It’s not glamorous. No one looks at the bank teller and thinks it’s a glamorous position. It’s what people do to get by.
And I think I might have rambled a bit because I finished that second case of beer I bought on Monday because work was really shitty.

By: Eric Shonkwiler

Eric Shonkwiler — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:11:20 +0000

Kristan: Yeah, I think anyone of any occupation–or none–can get the same sort of magic that a writer does. Be in the zone, to put it colloquially. I think any action that requires a modicum of mental activity can yield that sort of feeling. Dancing, fighting, driving.

If someone holds a book in higher esteem simply because of its source, then I think that reader is a lost cause. If you don’t judge a book on its content…you’re not looking at someone rational. I’d have to wash my hands. Or wring them around the reader’s neck.

Sort’ve an odd place to get your comfort, don’t you think? Another person’s book?

Nico and Courtney: Thanks. I knew it applied broadly but it’s best to speak to your expertise.

Jon: I have so much to say on that point. I think what’s worse than tainting the work with a writer’s poor reality is becoming so involved in that writer’s life that you lose sight of their work. You dig so deep into a biography you forget why you went looking in the first place.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:05:45 +0000

Post reminds me of a D.H. Lawrence quote, “Trust the tale, not the teller.” So true when it comes to writing. You have to disassociate anything that the writer does with what he or she writes. Otherwise it will drive you crazy because writers can be such awful people.

Or they are not awful, they just never are the mythic-poets that they should be.

By: courtney

courtney — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:42:38 +0000

Nico already said it, but I’ll say it another way:

Just rename the whole post “On Artists.” It applies to all creative fields, I think. Anyway you look at it, well said.

By: nicopolitan

nicopolitan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:45:25 +0000

This is almost seamlessly translatable to my world of musicianship. Pedestals are for the aimless.

By the way, this post was way solid and less dense than usual. Drives the point home in a totally different way — interesting to see you write expository pieces!

By: Kristan

Kristan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:04:04 +0000

I am so with you! And it drives me a little nuts when I hear people (readers or writers) trying to mysticize it. I think that creates unrealistic expectations for everyone.

That’s not to say writers can’t *feel* something special while they are working. A sort of “magic” one might say. I dunno, maybe really good mechanics do too. But at the end of the day, like you said, that magic feeling is not transferred to the work; it does not make the writing better. It’s simply a part of the individual writer’s own internal process.

I also don’t think this should *reduce* anyone’s esteem for a work. Just because so-and-so didn’t get “divine inspiration” for their book doesn’t make it any less good, if you liked it.

But I think people do often want to believe there is more behind a work of art. Dare I say, it’s just like many people wanting to believe there is more to life than what we have on Earth: because it’s comforting and inspiring.

(Whether or not it’s true, I don’t know.)