Comfort stimulates inertia, and discomfort gives rise to the need for expression. This is true both individually and collectively. The great themes of every age are precisely what bothered them most. And as soon as a solution appears, either by custom or by change, we notice it by the disappearance of the theme in literature. We approach the individual and find the same thing: it is precisely from discomfort that all authentic literature is born. And if we see it this way, we cannot help but look at the difficulties from an entirely new perspective.
Tag: literature
The Writer Is Lost If He Does Not Feel…
The writer is lost if he does not feel an irresistible attraction for the language, which compels him to study it even if he does not want to, in a practice whose abstinence manifests itself in deep discomfort. Whether this is predestination makes no difference. What is certain, however, is that he will not be able to bear the obstacles and frustrations of the profession if he does not feel himself evolving through prolonged study to infinity, only possible with a tolerance for letters that could best be defined as a passion. If he is chained to them and does not feel at ease, he must at least feel the characteristic satisfaction of fulfilling a duty.
What Writing Provides
What writing provides cannot be achieved through life: no action of any kind can match or replace it. First, the ordering and expression of thought—the step forward from reading; the consolidation of learning and reasoning. Then, the reflective nature of the process: even if it were possible to give a speech for as long as one writes and about what one writes, speech is radically different from writing because it does not allow, or rather does not require, revision, which boils down to an in-depth reflection on what one has tried to express and a decision as to its most precise expression. For individuals, writing encourages self-analysis, combining it with an action that materializes in the record of thought. Thus, for those who write, it can function simultaneously as venting and meditation. None of this, however, expresses the main effects of the process, which could be summarized as follows: growth and transformation.
When the Style Is Imposing and Pleasing
When the style is imposing and pleasing, a passage that does not say anything important can be tolerated. In some cases, one can tolerate more, much more than a single passage, depending on the quality of the author. It is interesting to observe this because it is proof that aesthetic pleasure alone can sustain interest. So metrical poetry, aesthetically and grammatically well constructed, has an obvious advantage and can, by its technique alone, please us. There are many verses which do not have much beyond that, and yet it seems sufficient to us and such verses seem good to us. The same is true of prose, and there are not infrequent examples where we might say that, in short, the style is the author.