Re: Ramblings of Randroids
Maria_Brandt@vsl.com
Fri, 23 Oct 1998 10:35:01 -0600
> "I myself write often solely for the purpose of writing. you'd be
> surprised at some of the things you can free your mind to say when
> you're not trying to say anything."--matt
>
>
> Isn't there an inherent contradiction here? You're purposefully doing
> something with the aim of doing nothing so that you will end up
> surprising yourself, and doing something. Therefore, with no
> expectations, you have hopes, and with hopes, you have some dregree of
> the aim of doing something.
>No, I don't think so. The original distinction was between writing for a
>purpose and writing for no purpose. I think what Matt is trying to say is
>that sometimes it's possible just to write for the enjoyment of writing,
>for no real aim or purpose but to exercise your writerly muscles.
Hello
I agree with you that it's possible to write for the enjoyment of writing.
I don't consider myself a writer, I just write from time to time, but I
especially like the lonely feeling that I get when I sit down to write
(like Lawrence Durrell wrote in The Alexandria Quartet "the writer is the
most solitary of animals"). It's a nice lonely feeling, like standing on a
grey beach with low tide. But then again, it's impossible to write and not
let the writing get inside your bones. A Venezuelan writer once said that
he wrote so that his friends would pat him on the shoulder. I also agree
with that, in the sense of the joy of sharing what you write, maybe not
directly, but in the form of conversations or some other way.
mc