Us human creatures are generally social, generally knowledgeable. For being what we are, in large part, we don't know what or who we are. Some of us see ourselves as Christians, others as atheists. Some as animals, some as greater than the animals. Some as rich, poor, or middle-class. Democrat, Republican, Independent. American, European, African, Asian, Russian, Australian. Fit or fat. The identifiers that we use for ourselves are endless. And that is what draws me to the written word.
Fiction is a desperate attempt to tackle the human experience. As writers we fight to capture what it would be like to be 15 and pregnant, or a worker in the old-time Chicago meatpacking district. We want to feel what it's like to kill someone, to see someone being killed, to be a victim. What would it be like to be part of that fairytale romance or in a romance that is destructive more than anything else?
The same goes for journalism. I read news, and hope to write it someday soon, with the goal of connecting people to who they are in relation to their community, state, country, world. Politics matter. The child kidnapped five states over matters.
In a sense, real people every day deal with these issues. This is why I write. I write to learn more about who we humans are as creatures and to get a feeling for why we're here and how things work. Much of fiction and news is grotesque and disturbing, but real life isn't pretty either.
Truth can be found in fiction. News should be the truth. Truth is what I'm after.
The Organ Made Out of Cave
7 hours ago
sometimes there is more of truth in fiction than in reality.
ReplyDeleteI was just going to say that lotusgirl. You took the words write out of my mouth.
ReplyDeleteI was actually a journalism major when I was in college back in 2000. Never finished. But I think that's because even then I realized that I personally couldn't do both. Didn't want to. The fact that you are tackling both--well kudos to you. And I can't wait to read some of your excerpts. Maybe I'll be bold enough to do the same...