Althouse: "When writing is our way of being in the world, it continuously asserts itself over the countless other aspects of life: love, study, a job."

May 12, 2018

"When writing is our way of being in the world, it continuously asserts itself over the countless other aspects of life: love, study, a job."

"It insists even when there’s no paper and pen or anything, because we’re worshippers of the written word and our minds dictate sentences even in the absence of tools with which to set them down. Writing, in short, is always there, urgent, and distances even the people we love, even our children who ask us to play."

Writes Elena Ferrante in "If you feel the urge to write, there’s no good reason to put it off" (The Guardian.

22 comments:

Darrell said...: If you write for the Guardian, put it off.; 5/12/18, 6:45 AM
rehajm said...: David Berkowitz said his neighbor’s dog demanded things, too.; 5/12/18, 6:48 AM
David Begley said...: Althouse’s Manifesto.; 5/12/18, 7:02 AM
traditionalguy said...: Reminds me of that scene in Daniel 5 's King Belshazzar banquet, when God got so bored with the nonsense going on that God started writing on the wall. No info in scripture on whether God used a Pelican Pen or had spell check on. But God also loves to write. And somewhere His Son reminds an audience that scripture cannot be broken.; 5/12/18, 7:15 AM
mikee said...: “Vogon poetry is of course, the third worst in the universe. The second worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their poet master Grunthos the Flatulent of his poem "Ode to a Small Lump of Green Putty I Found in My Armpit One Midsummer Morning" four of his audience died of internal haemorrhaging and the president of the Mid-Galactic Arts Nobbling Council survived by gnawing one of his own legs off. Grunthos was reported to have been "disappointed" by the poem's reception, and was about to embark on a reading of his 12-book epic entitled "My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles" when his own major intestine, in a desperate attempt to save humanity, leapt straight up through his neck and throttled his brain. The very worst poetry of all perished along with its creator, Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Redbridge, in the destruction of the planet Earth. Vogon poetry is mild by comparison.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; 5/12/18, 7:47 AM
Jupiter said...: "Publishing, yes: that can certainly be put off; in fact, one can decide not to publish at all."

Sound advice.; 5/12/18, 7:56 AM
Sebastian said...: "If you feel the urge to write, there’s no good reason to put it off"

Depends.

For most trolls on this blog, there's plenty of good reason.; 5/12/18, 8:08 AM
Sebastian said...: "When writing is our way of being in the world"

Is it just me or is this insistence on "writing as a way of being in the world" just slightly off? Would it even apply to a relentless blogger like Althouse?

I mean, I enjoy commenting here and all, but the "writing," such as it is, is a way of expressing thoughts, opposing BS, and communicating with some other people. Now maybe you can sum that all up under the heading of "writing," but it seems "writers" invested in "writing" are people with little to write about.; 5/12/18, 8:13 AM
Ron said...: what a load of bullhockey!; 5/12/18, 8:50 AM
Jaq said...: I live like that. Mostly I just make notes in my phone or comment here. Thanks God I don't need the money bad enough to sell out my close friends and family for filthy lucre. It's a way of seeing the world, but anybody who thinks that it's the best way should, ironically, read Don Quixote, where Cervantes does a brutal takedown of his "hero" who believed what he read in novels.

David Sedaris's Theft by Finding is like a long string of blog posts. Althouse lately seems to have found her own version of IHOP.; 5/12/18, 8:55 AM
traditionalguy said...: Some writers are trying to expose their neurotic inner selves. But others are just having fun with life that includes the ideas of others, and sharing that fun. That is my Words Are Toys theory of History.; 5/12/18, 9:20 AM
AZ Bob said...: "'(W)riters' invested in 'writing' are people with little to write about."

I agree with Sebastian. Saying something well is as only as good as having something valuable to say.; 5/12/18, 9:42 AM
Jaq said...: I read recently Kipling's interview with Mark Twain and he left out a large portion of the discussion as matters regarding the profession of writing that held little interest for the public at large. How standards have fallen.; 5/12/18, 9:46 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: If you feel the urge to write, there’s no good reason to put it off

This needs a Writing is like Masturbation tag.; 5/12/18, 9:52 AM
Earnest Prole said...: No author should be considered as having failed until he starts teaching others about writing. I think that was Hitchens.; 5/12/18, 9:53 AM
buwaya said...: Point there about Kipling.
There are lots of people who can write that have nothing to write about. Many of this sort are in "creative writing" classes. The wiser ones of this ilk deliberately run off somewhere to get material, like Paul Theroux.
There are even more people with something to write about, that rarely do. They have seen things you people wouldn't believe, as the android said.; 5/12/18, 10:11 AM
Jaq said...: Hitchens was a genius, and not just because he wrote "No One Left to Lie To " about the Clintons. Turned out he was wrong on that, of course. Hope over experience.

Sedaris worked teaching writing but said that it felt like stealing since anybody good could figure it out for themselves, and the hopefuls who were hopeless were just being robbed.; 5/12/18, 10:17 AM
Jaq said...: Buwaya, my dad was with Montgomery from Cairo to Eindhoven, rarely said a word about an experience he would rather have forgotten, except, since he enlisted at the highest age they would take recruits, I assume, he said you could teach a grown man to fight, but you couldn't teach them to enjoy it, for that you needed to recruit 18 year old boys.; 5/12/18, 10:23 AM
buwaya said...: Tim, exactly so.; 5/12/18, 10:53 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: The very worst poetry of all perished along with its creator, Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Redbridge

I absolutely remember the worst-ever poet being a four-named woman. Minitrue much?; 5/12/18, 4:39 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings.

Google it.; 5/12/18, 4:40 PM
Tom T. said...: Lots of people allow their work or their hobbies to subsume their personal lives. There's nothing unique or compelling about writers who do so.; 5/12/18, 11:33 PM