31 ms·

I disagree that prose doesn't exist anymore as it once did. It is merely that there is not that much of a market for prose. America, for better or worse, consum

by eshvk 13y ago

I disagree that prose doesn't exist anymore as it once did. It is merely that there is not that much of a market for prose. America, for better or worse, consumes the kind of fiction that is sappy, feel-good. Ultimately, intellectually unsatisfying to me. However, there are books out there, soul-wrenching books that explore the human condition. The condition that cannot be defined in simple terms of good, bad. Where Eat, Pray, Love doesn't end happily.

krmmalik 13y ago
You do have a point. I just feel alot of us write what we think as opposed to what we really feel. There's a fear of being judged. It's guarded writing. I'm halfway through a book on writing at the moment, and the author states that good writing is what is written without fear of judgement or rather in ignorance of it. I think in today's times, that's really hard to do. What's written in personal diaries and journals, is very different to what's communicated in an email even if the words are intended for the same effect.
- redler 13y ago
  It's difficult -- maybe impossible -- to write with no consideration for one's audience, present or eventual. The writer's equivalent of a Zen practitioner's pursuit of "mind like water". "The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it." -- Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
  - krmmalik 13y ago
    That quote is totally on the money. I have a new blog post that I am writing today. I'm too scared to really say the truth of what I think and feel for fear of being judged. Shall I do it anyway? What say you?
brudgers 13y ago
Yes, most books are crap. Yet, America still has Cormac McCarthy.
deleted 13y ago
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by eshvk 13y ago

krmmalik 13y ago

You do have a point. I just feel alot of us write what we think as opposed to what we really feel. There's a fear of being judged. It's guarded writing. I'm halfway through a book on writing at the moment, and the author states that good writing is what is written without fear of judgement or rather in ignorance of it. I think in today's times, that's really hard to do. What's written in personal diaries and journals, is very different to what's communicated in an email even if the words are intended for the same effect.

redler 13y ago
It's difficult -- maybe impossible -- to write with no consideration for one's audience, present or eventual. The writer's equivalent of a Zen practitioner's pursuit of "mind like water". "The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index finger of your right hand; you must see your left hand erasing it." -- Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
- krmmalik 13y ago
  That quote is totally on the money. I have a new blog post that I am writing today. I'm too scared to really say the truth of what I think and feel for fear of being judged. Shall I do it anyway? What say you?

brudgers 13y ago

Yes, most books are crap. Yet, America still has Cormac McCarthy.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]