Writer: A Definition
Sunday, March 29, 2009
These words read an hour ago in "Waiting," Anthony Lane's New Yorker piece on Samuel Beckett's life and letters.
... the only thing that separates the writer from ordinary folk—and, far from making him or her a better or wiser person, let alone a more amenable one, it can redouble the force of solitude, “one’s ultimate hard irreducible inorganic singleness”—is that the reading of a poem, or the pondering of a Crucifixion, becomes an event. Not a diversion, a flight, or a release from chores but an experience no less transformative than a day in bed with a lover—especially if, as in Beckett’s case, lovers were scarce.
Is this it, then—the line that gets drawn, cordoning writers off from the rest of the world? It's not a thought I'd had before. It's one that I weigh now.
And you? Your definition of a writer?
11 comments:
My definition is pretty simple. Someone who writes. The main difference between someone who does and someone who doesn't is the ability to keep one's bottom in a chair for extended periods of time, while facing nothing until it becomes something.
LN: Love this. Today I'm being a writer by not writing, but reading, something I haven't found the mind space for of late. Soon I plan to read one of your lovely-seeming novels (one endorsed by Michael Pakenham, my first book review editor at the Baltimore Sun).
A writer interprets a singular viewpoint for the delectation of the many.
Ditto LN.
Definition of a writer? Lilian wins that one.
So wonderful blog. Hope i can inspire you with my blog too.
I like and agree with this idea of writer's seeing and living with eyes that makes events out of what others would consider as mere diversions, or I think one could go even further and say, what others may not even consider at all. Because that is what I've been starting to understand about writing. It takes attention to life, to details.
I read some of the linked article. It stated that Beckett at one time considered becoming a commercial pilot. At the time Beckett is quoted as saying, "I do not feel like spending my life writing books that no one will read. It is not as though I wanted to write them." This Friday, I listened as an author spoke of the carrot she dangled in front of her while writing her newest book. She promised herself that if she just finished this one it would be her last, she'd never have to write another. She talked about how writing is so very difficult. Two questions later, she told of her love to write stories as a young girl. Next she shared that a year and a half after completing that last book, she had another idea and is currently hard at work on another.
It seems to me a writer is someone that keeps noticing events, finding the story in them, and writes it down because she/he has to.
Hmmm...
Hard-and-fast rules like that make me itch.
I just don't think it's that simple.
There's much to ponder there, though...
XO
A.
I always liked Thomas Mann's definition: "A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult." ;)
As much as I like the simple definition, "a writer is someone who writes," I have a sneaking suspicion that is not enough. At least not for me. Perhaps a writer is someone who has something to say and says it through writing. Not all written word is created equal.
Beth, I agree that reading is part of writing. Michael Pakenham wrote an amazing review of The Singing Fire. What a cool coincidence that you worked with him! I also agree with Juliet that there is better and worse writing (though people often disagree about what that is; I love looking at the range of ratings for the same book on amazon). It would take another discussion to work on definitions of a good book or good writing.
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