Concerning Silence

First, a quote.

“Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?” - Kurt Vonnegut

Lately I’ve been having trouble coming up with things to write about. That isn’t to say I haven’t tried. Time and again I’ve started something only to lose interest, forget about it, or sit on it so long that it loses relevance. As someone who fancies himself a writer, that makes for a rather frustrating few months. At the same time, I don’t want to write just for the sake of filling a page. By that I mean this: we are already a culture saturated by text, drowning in a sea of words and ideas which is constantly swallowing our minds, fighting for control of our already minuscule attention spans.

We are not a culture lacking for people with something to say.

Art and Artists: Lyricists

There are few things better in life than combining one thing I enjoy with another. For example: root beer and vanilla ice cream, lunar eclipses and Pink Floyd, football and Saturdays. One accentuates the other to the extent that both are enjoyed on a larger scale, often so much so as to illustrate the idea that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. Pretty cool.

One of my favorite combinations is of music and profound poetic genius...and while profound might be a bit of a stretch, a song with powerful or beautiful or poignant lyrics will always catch my ear more than one that could be written by a middle schooler. Perhaps this explains my affinity for folk and indie music while maintaining a general dislike of rap and hip hop (yes, I know there are some rappers who are masters of word choice...there are exceptions to every rule).

Dabble

I've decided to try my hand at a bit of fiction writing. I could say I am trying to write a novel, but I know that this "project" will probably never be finished. Instead, I'm trying to start writing constructively as a hobby; this blog is more of a way for me to organize my thoughts about the world, rather than write creatively. We will see how it turns out, but I don't expect that many, if any, people will read it other than me. Perhaps that is for the best, considering that we are a culture saturated by text. Yes, I realize that by writing a blog I am only adding to the problem. But all that is a topic and post for another day.

And so on...