What's the good?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

1. What's the good of writing if no one else can read it?

Question posed my Marcello on the thread where he was threatening to kill himself. Blanchot, my favoritest thinker-writer EVAH, spends a lot of time asking the opposite question: what's the good of writing if people are just going to read it? This thread is to name the various good things that can come of writing things that no-one else reads.

― J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Friday, 20 December 2002 13:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Here, I'll go first: Emily Dickinson

― J0hn Darn13ll3 (J0hn Darn13ll3), Friday, 20 December 2002 13:46 (twenty-three years ago)

i actually read that writing in and of itself can help with stress - the act of getting it all down on paper/wordprocessor can give you a moment to pause, think about it, and maybe come up with a solution/be vented. this has actually helped me a lot because when i get really annoyed with something eg at work, i'll write a huge bitchy email but not send it - just press the delete button instead. and what do you know, sometimes it works! i guess i just like the feeling of having articulated my problems and justified to myself that i'm actually angry for a reason, and then i can get on with it.

(i don't know WHERE i read this though. poss on BBC News. sorry!)

― katie (katie), Friday, 20 December 2002 13:50 (twenty-three years ago)

I always thought the most enjoyable/maybe best writing was that that no-one would read, cos there's no such thing as an ideal audience that'll enjoy EXACTLY what you want to write. I mean, publish as well, why not, but you probably make yr own best/most accurate audience. I agree w/Katie too, just setting things out for yrself tends to scale them down quite a bit.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 December 2002 13:52 (twenty-three years ago)

You are your own ideal audience = happy person = lousy writer

You are your own worst critic = less than happy person = better writer.

Kneejerk aphorisms = worst writer ov all.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 20 December 2002 13:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know if anyone reads my blog, I got rid of sitemeter cos it was a pain. I like writing it though, I mean until I start writing about something I don't have any thoughts about it except "it's good" or whatever, so there is a point.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 20 December 2002 13:56 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm thinking of keeping a journal next year, not an online one, so that I can remember what I did with greater clarity (like what songs I like, what CD's I buy, what films I see etc). But I guess that's not writing writing, unless some future person finds it and thinks I'm some kind of genius and publishes it, which is entirely plausible and possible.

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 20 December 2002 13:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Believe me I don't enjoy my own writing AT ALL. But at least I have a good idea as to what I was aiming at.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Exhibit B: Franz Kafka.

I do a lot of writing that's only for my own eyes. E.g. NaNoWriMo last year--I wrote a 60,000 word novel that only I will ever read (I didn't even let my wife see it). It was really useful/instructive/fun to do. Also dreadful, but that's not anybody else's problem, is it?

― Douglas, Friday, 20 December 2002 14:04 (twenty-three years ago)

(oh hell, I'm a lousy writer!, oh well! :)

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:05 (twenty-three years ago)

So um I guess I'm number two on Pete's list, no. one sounds awful.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I keep journals and I do think of them as my writings because I put alot of thought into what direction I want to go into in each entry. I can't write down everything I do - what would be the point? So I try to think of the most relevant things going on/ maybe a theme for the entry... I feel like they really help me get a big picture on my life. And I love opening a random journal to a random page and relearning the events and feelings I had on some day several years ago. My dream is that someday I could have an index for different subjects and people that I wrote about in different journals. But I guess that's crazy talk (unless I get my act together and start writing on the computer which could be searchable).
I don't write in there every day because I do have to live a little to have something to write about. But I guess I always figured that one day - maybe when I'm really old or after I'm dead - that someone will read all of them in order and learn all about my life. Not that my life is particularly any more interesting than anyone else's, just that it wouldn't be the reader's life.

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I think I like being number one on Pete's list rather than point two!

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:12 (twenty-three years ago)

jeez pete if that was directed at my admittedly-a-bit-twee "writing as therapy, maan" theory, well did i actually ever describe myself as a writer in anything more than a literal sense e.g. i make marks on bits of paper sometimes? NO. i'm sorry if my scribbling stuff down makes it more dealable with for myself and myself alone. unfortunately i'm not of the opinion that anyone else would WANT to read it, let alone care. and i'm not sure that i WANT to share my own petty gripes with anyone (unless they are about Tolkien obv).

if it wasn't um sorry. i am in a very bad mood at the moment.

― katie (katie), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:15 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought it was aimed at me.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Me too, even though I hadn't posted yet!

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:20 (twenty-three years ago)

pete you have offended us all and will have to PAY.

― katie (katie), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Cool, I could do with some cash. Cough up Pete.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:25 (twenty-three years ago)

he's scarpered! no seriously though. i am really in an incredibly bad mood and am being paranoid and crap. sorry.

― katie (katie), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:27 (twenty-three years ago)

The third part of pete's post is very self depreciating! (so, I don't think he was being serious!)

cheer up katie! don't worry bout it Andrew!

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I was only offended if he was suggesting I was happy. GRRRR.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:40 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm so moody and complicated

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Also I seem to be ripping Doorag off, sorry. Pete had a good point, if it applied to what I posted first.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:48 (twenty-three years ago)

i don't write *properly* about things nearly enough. i just make lists and shit. i think i should start.

― michael wells (michael w.), Friday, 20 December 2002 14:52 (twenty-three years ago)

do a blog, it's not too hard and sometimes people even read it.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 20 December 2002 15:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I have two "journals" and a blog and I sort of hope no-one here EVER READS THEM.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 December 2002 15:05 (twenty-three years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.