THE STATE OF (MY) ART
Within this column, I relate my thoughts and theories on creativity, discipline, craft, collaboration, and the (unspectacular) day-to-workings of your spectacular masterpieces ...
Are You a Dangerous Writer?
Writing can be
dangerous...
... because it observes, probes, dissects, challenges, and assaults life. At least it should. And, as we all know, life is dangerous. And since life and art are dangerous, and writers are intimately involved in both, they should be dangerous too.
Now, I understand there are different levels and definitions of "danger" but what I want to explore is danger's essence: that which is on the edge, which goes beyond the marked boundaries, which looks over the known into the scary and not-yet-discovered. That’s the nature of danger. And the nature of life, art, and artists.
Of course, every writer faces his own dilemmas, demons, and detractors that are specific to his own unique artistic journey, but all in all it's the same battle whether one is writing fact or fiction, for the few or for the masses. Listen to what these noted dangerous writers have to say:
"Surely all art is the result of one's having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, to where no one can go any further." - Rainer Maria Rilke
"I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for..." - Thornton Wilder
"Books... in which each thought is of unusual daring... which even make us dangerous to existing institutions - such call I good books." - Henry David Thoreau
What does a dangerous writer look like?
... because it observes, probes, dissects, challenges, and assaults life. At least it should. And, as we all know, life is dangerous. And since life and art are dangerous, and writers are intimately involved in both, they should be dangerous too.
Now, I understand there are different levels and definitions of "danger" but what I want to explore is danger's essence: that which is on the edge, which goes beyond the marked boundaries, which looks over the known into the scary and not-yet-discovered. That’s the nature of danger. And the nature of life, art, and artists.
Of course, every writer faces his own dilemmas, demons, and detractors that are specific to his own unique artistic journey, but all in all it's the same battle whether one is writing fact or fiction, for the few or for the masses. Listen to what these noted dangerous writers have to say:
"Surely all art is the result of one's having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, to where no one can go any further." - Rainer Maria Rilke
"I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for..." - Thornton Wilder
"Books... in which each thought is of unusual daring... which even make us dangerous to existing institutions - such call I good books." - Henry David Thoreau
What does a dangerous writer look like?
·
He VENTURES
beyond safe and accepted wisdom and experience.
· She PURSUES
fresh ideas and never-before-addressed topics.
·
He ABANDONS
the common and comfy and boldly enter scary, unchartered waters.
·
She RISKS
the possibility of obscurity, isolation, failure, and death.
·
He WRESTLES
the unknown, mysterious, and unformed and creates something new.
·
She DISMISSES
fear and peer pressure and heeds the calling for higher and better ideas.
·
He TRUSTS
that what is in his soul is not only important to him but to others also.
Are you a dangerous writer?
An adventurer, a discoverer, an uncoverer, a crusader? Or merely a scribe, a
chronicler, a documentarian, an observer? Is your material
dangerous? Do you tackle the complicated, the risky, the volatile, the
uncomfortable? Or do you only dabble in the safe, known, and predictable?
Dare to become a dangerous writer, not for danger’s sake, for that is foolishness and pride, but for the quest of knowing and living life to its deepest, highest, and widest. If you do, you may very well become like the artists of which Queen Victoria cautioned her daughter, the Crown Princess of Prussia, "I would venture to warn against too great intimacy with artists as it is very seductive and a little dangerous."
Dare to become a dangerous writer, not for danger’s sake, for that is foolishness and pride, but for the quest of knowing and living life to its deepest, highest, and widest. If you do, you may very well become like the artists of which Queen Victoria cautioned her daughter, the Crown Princess of Prussia, "I would venture to warn against too great intimacy with artists as it is very seductive and a little dangerous."
Dangerous writing is the hardest to produce - but the most exhilarating to create - and the only type worth reading.
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