When I was thirteen, I had a serious crush on a married man. My best friend at the time and I spent months on end collecting every single bit of information we could about him and his wife. In pre-internet times, that meant literally combing every bit of information in his books and the scattered mentions of him in other people's books and drawing timelines of his life. We loved him as much for his mystery as for his writing.
Now, there is this-
"__ is a science writer and a professional dancer and mountain climber."
"__ is a writer who has been bitten by tarantulas, lived inside a volcano and jumps off planes to make the rent money."
Suddenly, I am overwhelmed by proofs of diversity and uniqueness. Why is passion and talent insufficient? How is the curiousness of their experiences relevant to the quality of these people's writing?
Why does it matter, whether they moonlight as street performers or astronauts? No two people that go through the same experiences come out quite the same as one another. What one learns from watching a candle flame the other may be oblivious to after racing through a forest fire. So why decide that the one who lived through the forest fire is the more 'interesting' writer? And why must the scars from the fire serve as proof of the conviction behind the words? The words are convincing, and that should be enough.
I miss the days when people were mysterious. When I didn't know where the people I looked up to had acquired their perspectives. When a piece of writing had to move me enough that I was willing to spend hours hunting down the story behind it- "Where did he learn this? What sort of person was this?"
Writing is a lot like a first date. First touch my heart. Then tell me about yourself. Otherwise, spare me the bio.
5 comments:
Can't agree more :). It's overwhelming pressure to make yourself look cool and interesting, in addition to the pressure to sell your trade! ;)
But I guess the point of such short bios is to create a "Writer Persona" for themselves that will stick to people's mind - like a catchy tune. Borrowing from memory textbooks, ridiculous and silly info/tidbits are very handy as "links" to associate the vital information - such as the writer's name, face, some article names etc. Hopefully this means we will remember some people much better and check them out much later after the meeting ;)... a nice marketing strategy.
Nee, I prefer pnemonics like - "the guy that wrote that amazing article on spiders" ;)
I agree ! If I remember right, Wodehouse was himself a relatively boring person, who often dozed off in parties! And I don't think I would've had any more respect for him had he emerged alive from a dormant volcano, or braved a hurricane! :-)
You know it sounds strange but in someways, what someone does helps me decide whether i want to listen to him or not. These tidbits about a person are revealing in someways. Are they frivolous or are they sincere in what they are doing? Are they capable of talking about the subject or is this just their creativity ?
I would willingly read a doctor talk about medicine, life and death than am artist do the same. Because somewhere our experiences do shape us. Yes we all react differently and learn different things through our experiences but there is certain predisposition or occupational hazard that we are all exposed to.
I certainly don't mean to say that someone's excursions to Hawaii mean anything but if someone did go to Africa on a missionary front, I would more readily believe them when they talk about global problems.
And such measures dont help once you've known a person well enough. These elements are only as good as the first sight - they make you like the look of someone before you agree to date them. After that it becomes more as you say 'First touch my heart and then tell me about yourself !"
S- In certain cases, yes. Like I am certainly more inclined to listen to an investment banker rather than a gambler when taking advice about my finances! Not that the armchair traveler is always more interesting than the missionary, but neither does it work the other way around.
I think Karthik's example of PGW hits the nail on the head :)
As does your own line- "Are they frivolous or are they sincere in what they are doing?"
Having met enough frivolous people with 'interesting' stories, I am not particularly impressed with their tales. I think character is subtle- important to spot without having to start by looking at the trappings it comes with.
Post a Comment