Monday, August 18, 2008

Analyze my writing of your analysis of their writing of an analytical work...

Writing is awfully complicated. 

I just watched Barton Fink today, and I thought how interesting it was that I could relate to the main character, in all of his self inflated reasoning and passion to change the world. Being a "creative" writer can be difficult, as Barton expressed, because it isn't always... respected(?) I don't know where that's going, so we'll wander a different direction. 

It's something I've been thinking a lot about lately. I wonder if creative writing, if fiction is somehow less valid than other forms of the written word. Have you ever met someone who has said, "I don't read fiction"? I sure have. Fiction can have a stigma of just being stories someone made up. No big deal. 

Sometimes I see people so invested in other writing, non-fiction, analysis, anything of anything, and I think about how complex and wonderful it is. I find myself jealous! I suddenly want to write more essays with as many big words as I can think of! I want to just think instead of manifest characters or plots. I wonder if the analysis of a story is more important then the story itself. I believe that I am coming to a fascinating point of thought in this arena. 

The creators and the analysts need each other. It's a beautiful partnership! Would we have The Waste Land if we didn't have people talking the crap out of it? Would I still be reading Frankenstein in class if people hadn't written tomes about its themes? I love it! I love being on the side that I'm on! I love analysis, I find it fulfilling, but I love creation. But perhaps even more than I love sitting at a desk and thinking up the craziest crap I can, perhaps even more than I love talking about how The Road just messed me up inside, I love the dialogue between the two. I love the ever evolving realizations. 

Good works still speak. Good books last because there is so much for us to get out of them. Good stories, good analysis stay with us in our heads and our conversation because they sharpen our senses and our observations. So many books still speak because people find things that even the authors didn't notice or necessarily intend. Discussion allows works to evolve, and works are the fuel for discussion and I love it so freaking much. 

1 comment:

Comrade Jackson said...

you read The Road? Amazing, huh? I've never had a book move me like that one did, or at least stick in my mind for a few weeks, or a month. It still comes up in my thoughts. I'm afraid of being eaten.