Am I hearing voices? In short, no. There is just one voice used by every author when reading their work. The soothing voice has great pretensions to literary greatness. It cries out "I am an author" as it lulls me to sleep. I was at the "Word on Street" festival listening to authors present their work and I could barely hear what they were saying. Their voices were the tick, tick, tock of the hypnotist's pendulum rocking me back and forth into a trance of needless phrases. (This is also a problem with academic papers, but we needn't get into that here).
I thought two things.
One. Does anyone write anything remotely original? Are we heading to one great mono-voice that claims to represent a multitude, while in actuality misrepresenting.
Second. Writers don't know how to read. They're boring people who write down all their thoughts because, face-to-face, they can't speak. They're frozen, prudish people who haven't an ounce of drama in their lives because they've spent their lives writing drama.
I definitely know that the second isn't true. Every writer I've met intrigues me. Or maybe they just have a way with words. Gosh, that just hits me close to the heart (or as D. H. Lawrence would say "in the bowels"). You're a writer? Let me buy you that drink.
I suspect that the first is closer to the truth. We may have a fundamental problem that is particularly unique to the digital age. We find what we are looking for and what we are looking for is us. When reading, we gravitate to what we like and what we believe in.
The fact that we are facing an increasingly specialized age and living in spaces with invisible partitions is asking for an incestuous relationship. Meaning, that a community with a variety of people is healthier than one with a homogeneous group. The answer to the "writer's" voice is to start speaking with voices other than those believing to be great big "L". The "writer" has written. It's time to write on.
I thought two things.
One. Does anyone write anything remotely original? Are we heading to one great mono-voice that claims to represent a multitude, while in actuality misrepresenting.Second. Writers don't know how to read. They're boring people who write down all their thoughts because, face-to-face, they can't speak. They're frozen, prudish people who haven't an ounce of drama in their lives because they've spent their lives writing drama.
I definitely know that the second isn't true. Every writer I've met intrigues me. Or maybe they just have a way with words. Gosh, that just hits me close to the heart (or as D. H. Lawrence would say "in the bowels"). You're a writer? Let me buy you that drink.
I suspect that the first is closer to the truth. We may have a fundamental problem that is particularly unique to the digital age. We find what we are looking for and what we are looking for is us. When reading, we gravitate to what we like and what we believe in.
The fact that we are facing an increasingly specialized age and living in spaces with invisible partitions is asking for an incestuous relationship. Meaning, that a community with a variety of people is healthier than one with a homogeneous group. The answer to the "writer's" voice is to start speaking with voices other than those believing to be great big "L". The "writer" has written. It's time to write on.
