What people don’t understand about writers WHO TAKE OFF THEIR CHAINS
Most people believe writing is nothing more than an exercise designed to communicate with readers.
If that were true, the greatest books would be the best-selling books.
And the best meat in the world would be fast-food burgers.
THIS is the main event of writing: the writer puts on the page what he truly wants to. That’s what he’s doing. And THEN he engages in an act of faith. He believes in an ideal reader who will grasp the meaning and purpose and essence and details and suggestion of THAT WRITING.
Then you have something.
It was always a risky proposition.
From the first scrawl on a cave wall, until now, it was innovative.
Anything less is, in most cases, a manipulation geared to produce a reaction in the reader.
People in societies all over the world are trained like monkeys to receive and produce reactions. (See also my podcast, “Podcast: The Individual vs. AI”)
The WRITER is different. Yes, he wants to make an impact. Yes, he wants to communicate with the reader. But far greater than those ambitions, he wants to express and create something NEW.
That ambition isn’t simple minded, isn’t as easy as falling off a log.
It’s not a guarantee of success.
Not monkey business.
Not for minds who are obsessed with the literal at every turn.
People rarely understand that when the literal is the prime goal, when the innovative goes out of things and fades, then what is left is MIND CONTROL.
When the literal and only the literal takes over a civilization, you get stimulus-response. That, in all its forms, spreads like a sleep-gas. A gives you B. C gives you D.
Life becomes hollow.
A WRITER is moving AGAINST that.