Friday, October 5, 2012

Thirst

Writers can be skittish things, and every now and then require a quick slap in the face. Ru Freeman reminded me of the definition of a writer. There’s no such thing as a writer who sells a lot of books, or a writer of note and stature. They’re fictions. Useful ones in their way but fictions. Anything that follows the word “writer” is mere addendum; the root remains apart, for there are those of us who see and speak the truths as we see them in order to process those truths, and there are those of us who do not feel that same compulsion, that need to express the invisible with the same initial confusion of the original (biblical) Word. No one demands a farmer define himself. Writers would do well to emulate that notion. You are a writer when you write. That’s the seed and root of it. Rise in the morning and plow your fields. I don’t often wax philosophical, but when I do I wax Sartre. Stay conjectural, my friends.

1 comment:

  1. yep, writers too often rush to justify their writing. writing, as an idea, is totally self-contained. well put.

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