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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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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