Why I Write 1
By Steve
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I think of myself as rather a simple person. Writing has never been easy for me. For one, we, in America, live in a non-historical culture that makes everyone feel pretty good about themselves. There are no instances or rather rare instance of discrimination on TV. In reality, in terms of discrimination, Jews get it worst, then blacks, then Hispanics, and then Asians. Most Asians are so discriminated against in their own culture (class, distinction, and race) that they don't even know what discrimination means. Also, one must distinguish between critical thinking and discrimation. Critical thinking aims to help the person. Discrimination aims to hurt the person. Now, I am a cross between a conservative civil libertarian and a neocon so I don't take any shit from anyone. Perhaps this is why people find me so shocking in some senses.
Writing should be balanced, but our culture is extreme. You cannot have balance in an extreme culture unless you are speaking of excellence. And excellence as Aristotle may say, is the mean within the extreme. A great athlete must sacrifice, practice, and maintain an extreme diet to be great. Greatness is an extreme. Everyone in America wants to be a princess, wants to be the center of attention. Americans, in senses, want to live like the ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses, always complaining that they are not getting their portion or moira and excusing themselves that way. But I really wonder what America would be like without the Jewish, European, Asian,and Afro-American elites. This country is entirely devoid of any idea of what foreign cultures are like and believe that the low foreign cultures that are in America are actually what foreign culture is. Visiting South Korea again, I was filled with wonder and amazement. This is an Asian culture that has taken up ancient Greek ideas of excellence and "struggle" (agon) and applied it to their lives in an existential will to survive. Coming back to the US, I felt that I had gone to a welfare state.
This is not to say that I don't love America in many senses, but it's very tricky. I love pragmatism, but pragmatism in short is "what works." Fascism could work. Fascist tactics could work. Knowledge that Fascists have of medicine and social behavior may work, but were the Fascists really scientific? I wouldn't trust any of that "forbidden" knowledge.
Anyway, I am trying to write about why I write and it is curious. I really admire the South African white liberals, especially, Nadine Gordimer. Her ideas I have applied to my writing and I have realized the pitfalls of such a venture. I write because I want to express Being... the truthful, present moment crystallized in time. I no longer want to do this. I find reality terribly monstrous...
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writing is colour and class
writing is colour and class blind. It's black and white on the page. Why you write? And who read what your write? And why do they read it? These are different questions.
I write for a number of reasons and for the glory of it.
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our prejudice of who a person
our prejudice of who a person is and what they represent it based mostly on how they look and speak. Think of the story of the Prince and the Pauper. My Fair Lady. These factors don't come into play on the page. I can't tell whether you're black, white, a man or a woman on the page. There are signifiers, but you'd need to analyse the text to find them. It's black and white.
I don't know what you mean by every written text is literature.
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