El artificio de la escritura / The artifice of writing


miércoles, 14 de noviembre de 2007

Reading and writing

Somewhere I read some time ago the following asertion by Andrea Barrett: "Reading and writing are two of the ways we make sense of our mysterious, sometimes terrible, world." Now I stop to think why did I take note of this thought and why at this moment I am returning to it and devoting some time to consider its meaning. I suppose I am worried about those other ways of "making sense of the world" that are not writing and reading, as much as I wonder how much writng and reading has been done whose effect has been giving to the world an awful meaning. Now I realize that the citation is another of the many platitudes we write about writing while trying to make of it a very significant and serious activity. As most human endeavors, reading and writing are nothing but cunning forms of survival.

1 comentario:

Anónimo dijo...

Indeed! Reading and writing are nothing but forms of survival, however, they can also be forms of suicide, bordering on literary hara-kiri in some instances.

Many a time in the course of human events, have words been written and read, that have started revolutions and have either shaken or bolstered the will of a nation or that of its people. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 is an example of bolstered patriotism overwhelmed by Soviet brute force. The American Revolution is a classic example of a form of survival that paid off handsomely for the new colonies, much to the chagrin of the British Monarchy!

Andrés Csihas