Tag Archives: Blaise Pascal

Why We Write: The List

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I’ve been doing these Why We Write posts for a while now, so before I add more authors to the list (and I have plenty to add), I thought I should do a little combo of all of them. Call it an opportunity for readers to get caught up. Call it a craven attempt at added hits and blog traffic. Call it anything.

So, here we go! Below are the quotes and links to my inane little comments on them:

Don Delillo:

“Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals.”

Blaise Pascal:

“Everything that is written merely to please the author is worthless.”

Tom Wolfe:

I think I am starving for publication: I love to get published; it maddens me not to get published. I feel at times like getting every publisher in the world by the scruff of the neck, forcing his jaws open, and cramming the Mss down his throat — ‘God-damn you, here it is – I will and must be published.’

You know what it means – you’re a writer and you understand it. It’s not just ‘the satisfaction of being published.’ Great God! It’s the satisfaction of getting it out, or having that, so far as you’re concerned, gone through with it! That good or ill, for better or for worse, it’s over, done with, finished, out of your life forever and that, come what may, you can at least, as far as this thing is concerned, get the merciful damned easement of oblivion and forgetfulness.

John Updike:

“I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody’s head.”

Joseph Heller:

“Every writer I know has trouble writing.”

Ray Bradbury:

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

E.B. White:

“All writing is both a mask and an unveiling.”

George Orwell:

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”

Graham Greene:

“Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation.”

There you go folks! Check out all the links for author photos and comments. And as I said earlier, I’ll keep adding to this list. It’s inspiring to me, so hopefully it is to some of you as well.

C.T.

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Why We Write: Blaise Pascal

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(Note: I wrote this a few days ago and had it initially posted as a guest blogger feature at Nostrovia! Poetry. Please, check out his blog.)

“Everything that is written merely to please the author is worthless.” –Blaise Pascal

Portrait of Pascal

Portrait of Pascal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s not about you. How does that strike you? Yes, it’s your book or your poem, and yes, you want to be proud of it. But remember this: You want to have an audience.

I’ve heard a number of aspiring writers over the years say something to this effect: “I don’t care if anyone reads my stuff. I write for myself.” That’s all well and good, but it neglects the relational aspect of writing. Yes, you may have your own personal poetry, something you write, say, for relaxation or even therapy. But still, most writing, whether good or bad, is meant to be read. It’s communication, which implies more than one interested party.

The retort is, of course, that if you don’t write with yourself first and foremost in your mind, then you’ll simply be producing what other people want: You’ll be a hack, a toady, willing to jump for a dime. But one can be an individualist, creative and independent, without being a sellout. The truth is, if you don’t have an audience in mind, then no one will ever discover your creativity, or independence, or individuality.

Creativity is not an act of one, but requires someone to appreciate it. And while it may sound odd, individuality requires other people to whom the individualist can be compared and judged to be, well, an individualist.

So your writing needs other people in order to breathe, to have an impact. (Heck, even that poetry written for relaxation or therapy may be read some day by a therapist or a significant other.) You write to touch other people, for good or ill. It’s an act of communication, and its power lies in that. Write for yourself and only yourself, and you’re shouting into a garbage can.

Does this mean that I think everything that people write (including everything I’ve written) needs to be proclaimed to the world? No, but I do think one must be intentional with one’s writing, and understand that, in most cases, the goal is to share what is being written. At the very least, one should write, thinking that one day those words will be read.

C.T.

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