Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Barmecidal
You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. ~Ray Bradbury
Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow (I would argue that writing is not as socially acceptable as Doctorow espouses, given how often writers are actually allowed out into society. Writers only happen to be in self imposed chains to their books and word processors, and self medicated by the cheapest alcohol available.)
I love writing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I really agree to this. The (pro) writer I follow his blog mentions his cheap scotch drinking habit very often.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering how he'll react to this.
Hey....I got his opinion. Here his is. It's all his words, no omission, censoring.
ReplyDelete-----------------------------------------------
I think the Ray Bradbury quotation is a classic example of those
little ‘wisdom sound bytes’ that contain an element of truth, whilst
obviously not addressing the many angles of a complex issue. They’re
useful as long as you accept their limitations. I think a lot of
writers – me included – do question and struggle with the concept of
‘reality,’ and we’re often the type who find it difficult to live with
the definition handed to us by mainstream culture. Writing enables us
to create our own realities, and helps to deflect the problem.
The same reasoning applies to the Doctorow quotation, although that
one is more pithy and ironic. I find your man’s statement:
‘I would argue that writing is not as socially acceptable as Doctorow
espouses, given how often writers are actually allowed out into
society.’
I’m not sure what he means by that, since I’m not aware of any obvious
impediment to writers being allowed out into society. I do, however,
have some sympathy with his second statement. It goes some way to
describing one of my commonest states!
I don’t mind what you do with these opinions. They’re only my opinions.
-------------------------------------
(and in another post)
I suspect all writers are a little 'unbalanced,' Nutjrin. And glad of the fact!