Some people don't really understand why I must write or read as much as I do. If I'm being honest, it wasn't until very recently that I even understood that writing was more like a necessity than a pleasure to me, and I find it impossible to understand how anybody feels fulfilled without something in their lives that makes them feel the way writing makes me feel.
I am very much of the opinion that the term "tortured artist" is not a fictitious one. I believe that any kind of artist, whether it be a painter, a poem or a comedian has some form of pain or emptiness that they long to heal through their art, and I also believe that art really does help. Personally, I don't feel complete if I don't write. When I first started university, I became swept away with the "uni lifestyle", sitting up playing cards with my flatmates, going to the pub every night, going to cheap nightclubs, kissing lots of boys and sleeping in until late afternoon most days. I lived on noodles and soup and didn't spend a second alone: living with and around so many people meant that if I wasn't in the kitchen or at the SU bar socialising, I'd be in my friend Becky's room watching series after series of addictive but mind numbing television show on 4oD.
It wasn't long, however, before I realised that something was missing. I started going out even more in an attempt to fill this hollowness inside me but it didn't solve anything. And then something that was said in a seminar about a true writer needing to write and it dawned on me. My blog had dried up to the point where it comprised of stupid pictures and the odd update about whatever I'd been doing that week. I'd written, but I hadn't done any writing in ages.
I don't know what it is about it that evokes such a passion in me but all I can say is that I am in love with words. Articulate people amaze me. When I read a really well written article, or listen to a powerful debate or a flawless lyric, it reminds me what life is about, for me anyway. I'm not snobby with the writers that I admire. The canonical authors sometimes write terrible books (Daniel Defoe, I'm talking to you) whereas rappers such as Eminem are not given enough credit by poetic critics as they should. I just admire good writing, whether that be in a rap, a blog or a novel.
I guess it's because words are so powerful. Guns do their fair share of damage but words are what we live by. Words are in our Holy Books, words are our laws, words are used by politicians to persuade people to vote for them, by lawyers to fight for justice and by priests to instruct people on how to live a Godly life. Words can insult people or make a person's day. Words can conceal things, reveal things, dress things up in metaphor and ambiguity or strip things bare, spelling out the truth for whoever will listen.
Words can illustrate the past, or create a fictitious one that suits certain sexes or classes. Words can oppress and liberate. Words can change our mood. Just reading certain words alters the water activity in our bodies in a way that makes us feel emotionally low.
Words can transport us to other places, even other dimensions. Words can confess the most repulsive sin, or reveal the most disturbed mind. Words help us to communicate, to distance people or fall in love with people.
Words control EVERYTHING. Without words, we would be no more sophisticated than animals.
So how can anybody think it weird to have a love of literature or of writing?
I adore it. Even just writing this has improved my mood no end, and I know that I'll be the only person that finds it remotely interesting.
1 comment:
Beautifully written. :)
Words are units of meaning through which we can create other, none existant worlds - as one of my lecturers said in a developmental psychology lecture, in which he asked us 'What is language?'.
And what can be more amazing than that?
As an example:'The red, misty mountains loomed over a small bustling village settled on mars. Hover cars zoomed by, kicking up clouds of red sand. The bright sunlight cast an orange glow on the crooked settlement.'
This could never be experienced, yet through my choice of words, you now have a pictue of the scene in your head, which we are currently sharing. I can transfer my thoughts to your head, through the use of words, for us to both comment on and discuss.
If there is one thing humans can take massive pride in, it is the invention of language, and you've covered this brilliantly in your post. It's really nice to see somebody getting passionate over something and it should definately be encouraged. I get quite frustrated at people for getting on with their lives with their heads down, never really speaking about opinions or becoming passionate about what they believe in... or even stopping to think about the world, but this is one of the main positives of being human. We can get passionate, but then we can also voice it and debate over it. Definitely keep up with the blog writing, one of my pleasures is reading about other peoples thoughts and feelings, thinking about them, and commenting on them sometimes so I really enjoyed reading this. Well done, You're definitely on the right course. :) Sorry if i've gone on a bit, i'm in one of them moods! (This is Philippa from high school by the way)
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