Words and the Real Life
Sunday, January 25, 2009
This afternoon I stopped all other things to consider the content and nature of an advanced nonfiction course I'll teach at a university next fall. From filing cabinets I haven't consulted in years, I yanked folder after folder of workshop lessons, Xeroxed stories, notes I'd made to self. All old to me, all stale. Rising, tripping now over the paper columns on my floor, I traipsed toward bookshelves—tore my bookshelves down. Or not down (that isn't right) but apart. So that soon I was barricaded in with books and soon I lost all track of time. Soon I was all caught up reading passages I'd once thought to underline.
Here's a bit from Annie Dillard, her classic, The Writing Life. It reminds me of a conversation I had not long ago, around Christmas time, with one who believes that lives are to be lived, not written. (I'm thinking that we can both write and live. Oh, I'm hoping so.):
The written word is weak. Many people prefer life to it. Life gets your blood going, and it smells good. Writing is mere writing, literature is mere. It appeals only to the subtlest senses—the imagination's vision, and the imagination's hearing—and the moral sense, and the intellect. This writing that you do, that so thrills you, that so rocks and exhilarates you, as if you were dancing next to the band, is barely audible to anyone else. The reader's ear must adjust down from loud life to the subtle, imaginary sounds of the written word.
7 comments:
Hmm. Well. Interesting words from Dillard, but the only part I agree with is "[t]The reader's ear must adjust down from loud life to the subtle, imaginary sounds of the written word." Because that, the adjusting down from loud life and listening to the subtle, imaginary sounds of the written word, is part of the joy of reading! :)
I'm with you, B&BM. Squarely with you. Dillard is asking the writer to write with full power, ultimately. But to get us there, she affronts us.
We're surrounded by a world that thinks like this (or doesn't think, imho.) If only this kind of world could see how life opens, flows, is more capable of being full by the amazing gift of the written word.
Sherry. Yes. Oh. Yes.
Might I humbly suggest that Ms. Dillard purchase a Miracle Ear? You can order them right off the TV.
The books that I love fairly shout off the page, blowing me right out of my recliner.
I guess that's my way of saying that I, too, have been affronted.
XO
A.
I know the feeling of whipping out something from so long ago and reading what you wrote a while back. It's interesting and can also be inspiring at the same time.
Thank you for sharing Dillard's words. She provides insight into a new perspective, one that most people don't consider. "Life gets your blood going, and it smells good." Life can be a wild ride that spins and spins and never stops, and it certainly gets your blood going.
A reader's ear must adjust to all different forms of writing, and each and every person's writing style, and respect the words whispered in their ear.
I love that all of you have reacted to Dillard, which is precisely what this great writer wants. She can whip you, but she does it on purpose. She wants us to fight back, to pay attention, to get things right on the page.
Post a Comment