A writer's responsibility?
Ok, so follow me on this one. It's a slightly off-beat philosophy (as most of mine are) but if you expect any more, you shouldn't read this. Anyway....
I was thinking today about something. What it was is arbitrary, though I'm sure I'll use it as the first example when I expound on the theory at hand. The conclusion was thus - if the average person learns something about life, then they are obligated to share that information if the subject ever comes up.
But as a (supposed) writer, I feel my lot is slightly different. Writers are storytellers, and as far back as humans have documented, there have always been storytellers. They're the ones who broach the subjects that others give their two cents on.
Now, this may just be my self-serving mechanism responding to how much I love to teach, but it seems that we (myself and others, not the British "we") have a responsibility to broach the subjects that we have learned about in order to put that information out into the world. Not that our information is any better than non-writers' information, it's just that we have chosen to carry the torch of the information-giver. That's what writers do - we give information. It's often times fiction, but all writers read between the lines and as such we're able to really give opinion and advice to a blank-faced audience.
This needs an example. I'll revert to my earlier thought process.
I saw a headline on Yahoo about Chone Figgins (a utility infielder for the Angels who steals a lot of bases... essential for any fantasy baseball team this year) talking about college basketball, and I started thinking about how our alma mater's sports teams still matter to a lot of us. That sort of blind obedience got me thinking about blind obedience in general and how blind it really is.
Those thoughts combind became a 20+ minute session on choosing colleges and how most people making those choices don't understand the choice at all.
Reputation plays a big part - the school with the best reputation that admits you is where you go. And there are other factors - staff, cost, location, how much money they'll give you, etc.... Unfortunately, most people don't realize that it's more than just a piece of paper and the ability to shotgun a beer that you gain at college - it's largely a world view.
So I was thinking that when kids are choosing a school, they should seriously consider the world view of former matriculates and go to the school that has produced the most people that best represent who that high schooler wants to become. And that's not a financial or social decision but a decision of philosophy. I went to ECU. Now, since I only went for 2 years and didn't like it nearly as much as I pretended to, I wasn't too badly scarred, but to this day there's still a strange connection to the place. I love the Jacksonville Jaguars because they gave a chance to David Garrard who was an ECU grad. I understand the geography of the state and surrounding states. I can see things from an evengalical Christian point of view surprisingly well. I'm tied to it.
People that go to Ivy League schools often have similar traits, as do JuCo (Community College) grads. The school you go to has a huge impact on who you become, yet the choice is made when most people don't know who they really are.
So my thought process is this - I should write about the effect that the school you choose has on you as a person and write it in a way that high schoolers could stand reading. And all writers who have any insight into any aspect of life NEED to write about it. Human knowledge should be shared by humans, so for those who have the rare gift of storytelling, we need to tell the stories we've come up with that illustrate the points that we're able to illustrate.
Maybe this is just a corny "embrace your gift" message, but fuck it - it makes sense. If I had understood 6 years ago what I understand now I'd be a different person. I don't regret ECU, but I could easily have been persuaded to go someplace more suiting.
That's all. The responsibility of writers - to write.
I was thinking today about something. What it was is arbitrary, though I'm sure I'll use it as the first example when I expound on the theory at hand. The conclusion was thus - if the average person learns something about life, then they are obligated to share that information if the subject ever comes up.
But as a (supposed) writer, I feel my lot is slightly different. Writers are storytellers, and as far back as humans have documented, there have always been storytellers. They're the ones who broach the subjects that others give their two cents on.
Now, this may just be my self-serving mechanism responding to how much I love to teach, but it seems that we (myself and others, not the British "we") have a responsibility to broach the subjects that we have learned about in order to put that information out into the world. Not that our information is any better than non-writers' information, it's just that we have chosen to carry the torch of the information-giver. That's what writers do - we give information. It's often times fiction, but all writers read between the lines and as such we're able to really give opinion and advice to a blank-faced audience.
This needs an example. I'll revert to my earlier thought process.
I saw a headline on Yahoo about Chone Figgins (a utility infielder for the Angels who steals a lot of bases... essential for any fantasy baseball team this year) talking about college basketball, and I started thinking about how our alma mater's sports teams still matter to a lot of us. That sort of blind obedience got me thinking about blind obedience in general and how blind it really is.
Those thoughts combind became a 20+ minute session on choosing colleges and how most people making those choices don't understand the choice at all.
Reputation plays a big part - the school with the best reputation that admits you is where you go. And there are other factors - staff, cost, location, how much money they'll give you, etc.... Unfortunately, most people don't realize that it's more than just a piece of paper and the ability to shotgun a beer that you gain at college - it's largely a world view.
So I was thinking that when kids are choosing a school, they should seriously consider the world view of former matriculates and go to the school that has produced the most people that best represent who that high schooler wants to become. And that's not a financial or social decision but a decision of philosophy. I went to ECU. Now, since I only went for 2 years and didn't like it nearly as much as I pretended to, I wasn't too badly scarred, but to this day there's still a strange connection to the place. I love the Jacksonville Jaguars because they gave a chance to David Garrard who was an ECU grad. I understand the geography of the state and surrounding states. I can see things from an evengalical Christian point of view surprisingly well. I'm tied to it.
People that go to Ivy League schools often have similar traits, as do JuCo (Community College) grads. The school you go to has a huge impact on who you become, yet the choice is made when most people don't know who they really are.
So my thought process is this - I should write about the effect that the school you choose has on you as a person and write it in a way that high schoolers could stand reading. And all writers who have any insight into any aspect of life NEED to write about it. Human knowledge should be shared by humans, so for those who have the rare gift of storytelling, we need to tell the stories we've come up with that illustrate the points that we're able to illustrate.
Maybe this is just a corny "embrace your gift" message, but fuck it - it makes sense. If I had understood 6 years ago what I understand now I'd be a different person. I don't regret ECU, but I could easily have been persuaded to go someplace more suiting.
That's all. The responsibility of writers - to write.