Art Every Wednesday (26)

This weeks Art Wednesday is part autobiographical, as, in writing, we have finally come to an art form that I can speak about from personal experience. Sometime in college I was disillusioned with my major, feeling depressed, and generally feeling like I could already see the barren landscape of my future stretching out desolate all the way to the horizon, and then it hit me: switch to the English department and become a writer. The idea that did it for me (other than a romantic image of myself as some kind of Bohemian vagabond who travels around the world writing deep thoughts my whole life) was that in writing I could create stories that would do for others what stories had always done for me, namely, take people away to another world and give them hope.

I remember once I was sitting in study hall in 8th grade with my face in a book and the 9th grader sitting next to me looked over my shoulder and asked, "Why are you reading?" He said it loudly and in a tone of voice that indicated real confusion, as if he was faced with a mystery that he could not decipher. He might have had the same tone of voice if I had suddenly sprouted horns from my head. I panicked because a 9th grader was talking to me and thankfully the teacher overheard and saved me by declaring, "Stories teach you how to live." Years later it still seems like a perfect answer.

The best writers have this power to create a seamless dream that is so vivid that you lose yourself it in, which, you might say is the power of all art. It brushes with you and as it takes part of you along with it and when it returns to you that little bit is different, better. In this brief reprieve the greatest art will speak the truth. There are so many stories I've read through which I have experienced this exchange, and these are the stories that I return to over and over again when I need that little bit of truth. Writers work with language and craft it into something beautiful. They work with symbols and invest them with meaning. If the art is good that meaning becomes a razor point that can cut us where we need to be cut. As with all artists, writers repeat the act of creation in miniature. God made us creative beings, sub-creators, as Tolkien put it. There is power in the worlds writers create in their fictions. There is power in looking at the world and seeing it for what it is, in all its ugliness and glories, and then setting down on paper. It is the power to tell a lie that is really telling the truth.


Three books that contain examples of prose at its most beautiful:


A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
By: Annie Dillard

Dillard won a Pulitzer for this book and all that happens in it is basically that she goes outside and walks around and writes about what she sees and thinks about life, and it is beautiful. Her use of language leaves you breathless.




100 Years of Solitude
By: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

This is the story of the long history of one obscure South American town and all that happens within it. I found myself drawn on by the originality and the creativity of the stories in this book and also by the great writing.






Going to Meet the Man
By: James Baldwin

I include this collection of short stories because it contains my favorite short story, Sonny's Blues. If you haven't read it, go read it. It is a retelling of the prodigal son set it mid-20th century Harlem.








Here are three books I have found helpful in learning about the craft of writing:


The Writing Life
by: Annie Dillard

Dillard tells stories and creates metaphors that serve to teach about the nature of the writing life. Read this book for the beauty of her prose if nothing else.






On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
by: Stephen King

Stephen King in his usual wit and dry candor weaves his thoughts on the craft of writing into his own story. This is an entertaining read that will make you laugh and alternately take our your journal to copy down lines.






Bird by Bird
by: Anne Lamott

Like King, Lamott tells her story with a strong streak of humor. This is very practical book. If you struggle with sitting down and getting things on paper (which I am sure all writers do) this book will give you some good advice and make you feel like you are not alone in the world.