Sharman’s Comments (group member since Oct 26, 2015)

Sharman’s comments from the Conversation: Why Do We Write and Read? group.

Kim wrote: "Wow, that is so well said, Sharma! Such pearls of wisdom! And so poetically expressed! Humbly, my additional two cents would be: Beautiful yet powerful, writing can make sense of absurdity. More po..."

Yes, that is such a dimension, too--opening up to new ideas. I think of writer and reader always as colleagues, with lots of common ground, but that still means that we learn new things when we read and build on our existing ideas. Thanks, Kim, for these thoughts.

Yes! I also think we need some new words! We've mixed up creative writing so much with commercial success and approval from the New York Times and best-sellers and, even, with being some kind of truth-seeker and cultural hero. I kind of agree with the truth-seeker part, but we've aggrandized and distorted that, too. Jeanette's description was so appropriate--the simple, personal exhilaration.

Somehow this new word should connote that. Like riding a sled in fresh white snow. The autumn colors of red and yellow. Something that shows how human and delightful and important and everyday natural this is...

Let's think on this.

Mary wrote: "And here I am, the killjoy.

I don't know when it was that writing became for me nothing like a metaphysical or spiritual or even consciously self-expressive activity. I suffered more than three d..."

Your reply was more like the killdeer, Mary, bright and piercing, an honest flash of wings in the blue sky.

Hello! I’ll be facilitating a conversation this November 24, 5-8 p.m., on why we write and why we read. Early and late posts are welcome but I probably won't join in myself until November 24.

My first thoughts:

Writing is discovery of the self, a kind of archaeology, going into the unconscious, bringing up feelings and ideas into the light—the nature of insight. In sight. Writing is motion, action, throwing words on the page and being part of how they interact and resonate and attract and repel. Thinking really does come out of language. And writing is about being actively engaged in language. Writing is play. Writing is theater. We get to be everything in the stories we write-- a different sex, a different age, a different culture, a different species. We are a king and a fox and a leaf in the wind. We are the wind. And I believe this reflects a basic truth. I believe we are, in fact, part of everything. Science tells us that. The mystics tell us that. Writing is a kind of experiential mysticism in which we try to mimic the unity of the universe. In which every sound, every syllable, every word, every idea, every image is part of a larger whole.

Reading is a dialogue with someone engaged in this process. Like a good conversation with a friend, we are fully participatory. There is a back and forth. We bring our own ideas. We are part of the theater—we are everything in the story. A king, a fox, a leaf. The wind. We experience the unity.

These are my ideas and experiences. We'd like to know yours.