veronica_rich (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
veronica_rich) wrote2008-07-28 09:30 pm
veronica_rich) wrote2008-07-28 09:30 pm
So much truth
Commandeered from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
poetic_self's LJ. Samuel R. Delany: About Writing
Writers are people who write. By and large, they are not happy people. They're not good at relationships. Often they're drunks. And writing -- good writing -- does not get easier and easier with practice. It gets harder and harder -- so eventually the writer must stall out into silence.The silence that waits for every writer and that, inevitably, if only with death (if we're lucky the two may happen at the same time: but they are still two, and their coincidence is rare), the writer must fall into is angst-ridden and terrifying - and often drives us mad. (In a letter to Allen Tate, the poet Hart Crane once described writing as "dancing on dynamite.") So if you're not a writer, consider yourself fortunate.
(I think I'm going to add this to my LJ's introductory post.)
poetic_self's LJ. Samuel R. Delany: About WritingWriters are people who write. By and large, they are not happy people. They're not good at relationships. Often they're drunks. And writing -- good writing -- does not get easier and easier with practice. It gets harder and harder -- so eventually the writer must stall out into silence.The silence that waits for every writer and that, inevitably, if only with death (if we're lucky the two may happen at the same time: but they are still two, and their coincidence is rare), the writer must fall into is angst-ridden and terrifying - and often drives us mad. (In a letter to Allen Tate, the poet Hart Crane once described writing as "dancing on dynamite.") So if you're not a writer, consider yourself fortunate.
(I think I'm going to add this to my LJ's introductory post.)
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I think it's largely true. It's the "by and large" you have to pay attention to. Not all of us are happily married with kids and in-laws who love us and supportive friends nearby. Some of us really do struggle just to produce something readable, while others regularly flow out inspirational copy.
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I think we all struggle. So much of ourselves is on that page that it takes an awfully brave person to put stuff out there and take the praise with the disdain. But I really don't understand the mindset where we are alienated from everyone (you and I have become friends because of our WRITING!), and we should wallow in our alienation, and whatever jerkiness (or excessive drinking) occurs is because we are writers. No, that is unacceptable to me. Yes, you can agonize over your writing. Yes, you can get those mean reds and feel inadquate and heaps of self-disgust (which I do, more often that I ever let on), but I don't think we are a special little club that allows us to be jerks just because we are writers.
This is such a bleak and FATALISTIC viewpoint. In fact, it says to me what's the point of writing at ALL, because eventually you'll become so paralyzed with self-disgust that you won't be able to type a simple sentence without reaching for the vodka. If I felt that way, I'd sell my laptop right now. I see myself, hopefully, on a continuum. Getting better. Hopefully. And I might not, that remains to be seen, but I don't see myself writing toward silence. I see myself writing toward greater clarity, better command of my gifts, increased awareness of how language works, in short, I see it as a learning process, not a death march.
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But I've also known an equal number of shiny happy people in all those professions, with lovely relationships and no drinkie. Many of whom connected their success and happiness to their callings.
In short, it's a lovely quote, but I don't think there's data to support the generalization.
(Interestingly, I saw a documentary a few months ago on the high incidence of demolished families, drug/alcohol abuse, angst, insanity, even suicide -- among mathmeticians!)
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But I love Samuel Delany (when he doesn't frighten me). He's quite an odd bird. Perfect for an lj introductory post.
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