On writing.
I want to be a better writer. For a long time I was unsure of what that means.
Is it simply improved lyricality with a deeper more systemic rhythm hidden within sentences.
Is it poetry - Conveying complex thoughts with small words and how they play together and images they inspire? Is it narration - the most reviled of them all where the world is broken and described piece by aching piece... and the genius is in as much what is shown as what is discarded.
There is much to be said of them all and they all have their significant places in the quiver, so to speak.
Language bears the greater part of the burden of articulation.
Not paint or notes or photographs or the video you captured.
The evening you have had resonated with 'Blue in Green' by Miles Davis. You may use it to communicate the idea to others. They may even understand exactly what you are trying to say.
But within your own mind your dissection of your experience shall perforce be conducted by words. They are the morticians, the scalpels and the innards you pull out.
And that is why writers are important. Because we see the world around us and we sketch it out for you in words - the tools you use to see the world and your place in it. It is not simply documentation of the human condition (for a lot of people photographers, painters and filmmakers have the punch on that one...)
Whether through 1000s of years of evolution or perhaps in something even more primal - words are the form of the inner conversations. Desires take hold and worlds unexplored open with words. Prayers are in words.
And thus there is the great responsibility as someone who has decided to wield these. You words you use, those little inventions and discoveries in your crucible as you break and remake the sentences - these words help articulate that which does not exist before.
For in giving it a name you have found a way to describe it and to adopt it in your mind. By giving it a name you have caused to become apparent what was only vague earlier. You experience it with words and then theorise and deal with it in words.
***
Artists working with other media should not misunderstand me, I love all forms of creative expression and how they make me feel. However, once the feeling is gone many times I am left with only the words for it.
Is it simply improved lyricality with a deeper more systemic rhythm hidden within sentences.
Is it poetry - Conveying complex thoughts with small words and how they play together and images they inspire? Is it narration - the most reviled of them all where the world is broken and described piece by aching piece... and the genius is in as much what is shown as what is discarded.
There is much to be said of them all and they all have their significant places in the quiver, so to speak.
Language bears the greater part of the burden of articulation.
Not paint or notes or photographs or the video you captured.
The evening you have had resonated with 'Blue in Green' by Miles Davis. You may use it to communicate the idea to others. They may even understand exactly what you are trying to say.
But within your own mind your dissection of your experience shall perforce be conducted by words. They are the morticians, the scalpels and the innards you pull out.
And that is why writers are important. Because we see the world around us and we sketch it out for you in words - the tools you use to see the world and your place in it. It is not simply documentation of the human condition (for a lot of people photographers, painters and filmmakers have the punch on that one...)
Whether through 1000s of years of evolution or perhaps in something even more primal - words are the form of the inner conversations. Desires take hold and worlds unexplored open with words. Prayers are in words.
And thus there is the great responsibility as someone who has decided to wield these. You words you use, those little inventions and discoveries in your crucible as you break and remake the sentences - these words help articulate that which does not exist before.
For in giving it a name you have found a way to describe it and to adopt it in your mind. By giving it a name you have caused to become apparent what was only vague earlier. You experience it with words and then theorise and deal with it in words.
***
Artists working with other media should not misunderstand me, I love all forms of creative expression and how they make me feel. However, once the feeling is gone many times I am left with only the words for it.