we don't do enough living
I received an interesting email today in response to my little piece in Poets & Writers about how writers aren't really sloppy drunks anymore. It's funny, I think I thought I was saying in the piece that successful writers aren't drunks and/or eccentrics anymore, but tend to be really hard-working and on top of things. The writer of this engaging email seems to think I was equating being a drunk with being an eccentric, which I didn't really mean. That said, I think this thoughtful stranger makes some really interesting points. And also I just enjoyed getting the email. So I figured I'd share.
Dear Amy:
Reading your piece in the newest issue of Poets and Writers scratched my skin. I was slightly irritated by your delightful piece, and annoyed that you considered substance abuse eccentric. I’ve always considered it the norm. Every Estonian I have ever known drinks to their wits end. I’ve watched to-be elementary educators sniff cocaine off coffee tables out of boredom. And why is it that a person of Aboriginal descent slumming it on a street corner, moonshine in a paper bag, is called a drunk when a writer would otherwise be romanticized? Every man in my family has loved the tang of the brown bottle a little more than family – ah, genetics! And having learned a thing or two from history and how it repeats itself I decided to steer clear of addictions, not because I’m a busy writer employed by a slew of other indignities.
Sadly, your MFA experience is common. Contemporary writers (for the most part) are lost in the dismal glow of their computer screens, listening to the snapping of weak wrists melding with the clang of fingers on food stained keys. But that’s not to say that they are without eccentricities. The paradigm of what is considered ‘eccentric’ needs to shift. When I think of eccentric, I think of the Pierre Berton’s of the world who are out there, experiencing and living life – a message repeated like mantra in self-help books. We don’t do enough living, putting ourselves in unfamiliar places doing unfamiliar things, expanding our comfort zones. And in doing that, the eccentricities follow and the well of writing material deepens, simply by living, not by closet drinking.
Thank you for writing such a thought provoking article. A well-written piece that gets me fired up is always a pleasure.
All Best,
A--- G---
What is "eccentricity" anyway? And what is its value? I tend to like eccentrics who don't even know they are eccentrics, I know that much.
Dear Amy:
Reading your piece in the newest issue of Poets and Writers scratched my skin. I was slightly irritated by your delightful piece, and annoyed that you considered substance abuse eccentric. I’ve always considered it the norm. Every Estonian I have ever known drinks to their wits end. I’ve watched to-be elementary educators sniff cocaine off coffee tables out of boredom. And why is it that a person of Aboriginal descent slumming it on a street corner, moonshine in a paper bag, is called a drunk when a writer would otherwise be romanticized? Every man in my family has loved the tang of the brown bottle a little more than family – ah, genetics! And having learned a thing or two from history and how it repeats itself I decided to steer clear of addictions, not because I’m a busy writer employed by a slew of other indignities.
Sadly, your MFA experience is common. Contemporary writers (for the most part) are lost in the dismal glow of their computer screens, listening to the snapping of weak wrists melding with the clang of fingers on food stained keys. But that’s not to say that they are without eccentricities. The paradigm of what is considered ‘eccentric’ needs to shift. When I think of eccentric, I think of the Pierre Berton’s of the world who are out there, experiencing and living life – a message repeated like mantra in self-help books. We don’t do enough living, putting ourselves in unfamiliar places doing unfamiliar things, expanding our comfort zones. And in doing that, the eccentricities follow and the well of writing material deepens, simply by living, not by closet drinking.
Thank you for writing such a thought provoking article. A well-written piece that gets me fired up is always a pleasure.
All Best,
A--- G---
What is "eccentricity" anyway? And what is its value? I tend to like eccentrics who don't even know they are eccentrics, I know that much.
Labels: words
posted by amy at
10:15 PM
3 Comments:
I think an eccentric just IS. It's not a construct or deliberate performance. Those traits are not cultivated or selected as "keepers".
I work in an office, which could be considered a stagnant, dull and non-challenging place. In many ways, it requires incredible conformity to work there. But, this particular office and its staff seem to have been tweaked.
A longstanding friend and co-worker pointed out, "I've hung with punks and alternative kids nearly 25 years, and NONE of them were as weird and edgy and bizarre as half the people in this office! Because, these people don't even know how weird they are. They simply are."
Ah yes, so true. People who are trying to be weird are often so, well, boring. And the people who think they're totally normal...they're usually off their nuts.
As my friend said in reference to our mildly deranged co-workers, "You just can't fake that sh*t!"
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