Thoughts on Writing

When I first envisioned writing a book, my goal was to communicate my scientific ideas using a non Fiction format. My ideas had not yet evolved into a hybrid of the scientific and spiritual. Writing for me was, at that time, just a means to an end. My scientific ideas were inspired by Quantum Mechanics and other aspects of modern Physics and consequently involved the interaction between mind and matter, thoughts and energy, our inner world and our outer world. However, I considered writing to be simply an inert medium of information transfer. My writing style under this Spartan regime did not mirror nor contribute to the message of my writing. My writing style, unlike my ideas, did not involve the interplay between the objective and subjective, or between the message and the medium. The message would influence the writing but the writing would not influence, nor mirror the message. I envisioned writing a great work of non Fiction that would educate and even enlighten the readers' minds but it would be immaterial whether I communicate my ideas via the written word, mathematical equations or smoke signals.

During the following few years my scientific ideas evolved and matured and this had a marked effect on my writing style and objectives. While I initially championed the non-mechanistic ideas of modern physics, I did not extend this philosophy to my writing. After my ideas evolved and matured, I now welcomed my writing style into this fold. I accepted long before that the universe was not the mechanistic, clockwork universe imagined by Isaac Newton and his acolytes, but now I also yearned for a richer, more interactive and less mechanistic literary style. In Quantum Mechanics the observer influences the observed. There is no external objective reality that can be expressed independently of the observer. Similarly, my writing would now influence the message, just as the message dictates the writing. My writing would no longer be expressed in an austere and detached medium.

I had now resolved to express my scientific, and what were now also spiritual ideas, not as a non Fiction treatise, but instead as a rich literary narrative. My program was ambitious. I aimed to express my ideas on multiple levels. The first level would simply be the message itself expressed locally and immediately. However, there would be another way that I would express my message - the structure of the plot itself. This would be a way of expressing my message which is not rooted in the local or immediate content of my words, but instead in the global structure of my plot. This is what I mean by a non mechanistic medium where the message is the medium. The fundamental message of Shards Of Divinities is that God is a recursive phenomenon, a self referencing reality. The observant reader will notice that the structure of my plot follows this paradigm. Additionally, I aimed to capture the grandeur of my ideas not just by expressing them in a stark fashion but also by using poetic prose. I hoped my prose would penetrate and revitalize the reader's soul as hot soup penetrates and revitalizes your body on a cold and drizzly winter's day.

Here is an excerpt from Shards Of Divinities that exemplifies my penchant for poetic prose:

To be perfectly honest and as one is to expect, my relationship with the idols in my father's shop had evolved over the years. As a small child they fascinated me not strictly due to their theological connotations but also due to a small child’s propensity to experience awe for such things as a rainbow, the clap of distant thunder or the dew embracing the ground during a crisp early spring morning. A young child often cannot distinguish between the genuine truth and beauty of creation and the lie of that which is made by man’s hand. The ability to marvel at the beauty of creation is an affectation of childhood that is often lost with the onset of intellectual maturity. As I matured I understood more deeply the purpose of these idols and my innocent awe was replaced with a deep and misguided religiosity. A poor man is easy prey to those who are crafty as a fox and are inclined to entice him with fool’s gold. A man denied a woman’s sexual love will succumb to those who do not honor humanity’s soul and instead are merchants of its flesh. Likewise, a man hungry for God is susceptible to the charms of idolatry as is a snake to the enticing melody that seeps freely from the charmer’s flute.

While I'm on the topic of Poetic prose I'd like to briefly discuss the thorny issue of Purple prose. This is prose that is deemed too flowery and verbose. Amongst the literary inclined very few topics trigger more heated disagreements. There is a literary school whose luminaries include Ernest Hemingway, which holds that flowery prose is anathema to respectable writing of Fiction. I do not subscribe to this austere world-view. Is the excerpt I included above considered Purple prose? What is the relationship between Poetic prose and Purple prose? Is it merely a matter of over indulgence? The proponents of Ernest Hemingway's terse and Spartan literary style have an expression they love to throw around with great relish: Murder your little darlings, they advise. The little darlings to which they refer are the presumably overly flowery and verbose passages of narrative. They advise writers to fleetingly admire their little darlings and to then ruthlessly cut them down like overgrown weeds. Is the excerpt I included above deserving of such a fate? Is it an overgrown weed ready for my literary shears? I certainly don't think so. What a boring literary tapestry we would all weave if we banished all such little darlings.

I first began writing over six years ago and I discovered to my great joy that I had a talent for expressing my ideas in a fluid, poetic style. I fell deeply in love not just with pursuing my scientific and spiritual ideas but also with the craft of Fiction writing. I felt my spirit soar with indescribable joy when writing. I felt a trance-like communion with divinity. I always wished I could sing and touch people's hearts in that way but I don't have the voice for it. When I write I feel that I found my voice. I've put my heart and soul into writing my novel Shards Of Divinities and I am happy with the outcome. My initially purely scientific ideas have assumed a spiritual flavor.

May you all find your literary voice.

Nissim Levy,

Author of Shards Of Divinities http://amzn.to/269xP2Q