It does not seem at all reliable to try to draw parallels between writers’ physical fitness and their intellectual character, and the proof of this is that, based solely on their writing, one can hardly glean any clues about the former. However, it is very interesting when we discover that a writer was also an athlete during his lifetime. The fact is less interesting for the possible feats achieved, and more for the importance of the athletic habit in daily life: for the necessity of it, and for reaping the benefits of exercise. There are, of course, different kinds of exercise; however, it is clear that, provided they are performed with some intensity, work flows much better afterward. The difference is noticeable: physical work is followed by a sense of relaxation, a positive serenity that benefits intellectual activity.
Tag: writing
There Is Something Strange About the Way…
There is something strange about the way ideas take shape in the mind. Sometimes, it’s fun to play at facing the problem of the blank screen, the blinking cursor, and the text yet to be written. Then, one realizes the following: the idea does not spring forth when the mind is active, when it imagines phrases and themes, and reflects on what it will write. If the mind intensifies its thinking, it eventually exhausts itself, but the idea does not come. However, if the mind allows itself a moment of pause, sometimes when lighting a cigarette or pouring a cup of coffee, which interrupts the thought and creates a void, a momentary inertia, it is in this very moment that the idea springs forth, leaving the writer with the task of shaping it and writing it down.
The Aspiring Writer Will Be Shocked…
The aspiring writer will be shocked if someone tells him that not even Cioran himself agreed with the things he said, but that, despite this, he was a true master of the art of writing. Yet this is the case. And that is precisely why it is so difficult to find authors who write like him: because Cioran took the need to craft powerful phrases to its ultimate extreme. For him, it is not the content of what he is saying that matters, but rather the effect of the sentence. And when it comes to powerful sentences, there are not many authors who can compare to him.
The Same Organizing Impulse That…
The same organizing impulse that drives the philosopher has an important, but different, weight for the poet. This impulse outlines, structures, organizes, and makes a poetic work comprehensible and justified; it enhances its effect by filling the verses with meaning, putting everything in its place within the whole. However, a poetic work often needs explosions that amplify the effect of the previous and subsequent harmony, beyond its most obvious expressive effects. For the brief period in which they occur, order must sometimes be suspended, chaos must be allowed; otherwise, the rapture is not complete. Allowing it repeatedly, one realizes that, after all, it is such raptures that leave the greatest mark on a poetic work; therefore, the most memorable are the brief moments when there was a break with what was theoretically intended.