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Re: The writer's disease (was: A step up, a step down)

Subject: Re: The writer's disease (was: A step up, a step down)
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 14:41:49 -0700

Kirby_Sarah wrote:

I'm curious, why are you a compulsive writer. Is it to express yourself
clearly, as a release valve on an over active mind or something else


In the preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth called poetry "a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."

Add "and thought" to that quotation, and you've got my motivations down precisely. I have a chain-reading habit of three to ten books books a week, and, for me, writing and talking are simply natural extensions of thinking and feeling. Sometimes, writing clarifies or elaborates thoughts or feelings, but, mostly, the expression is an end in itself.

As to why the expression is important to me . . . well, back in August, I started reading about the idea that human culture began in our distant evolutionary past as a form of sexual display - like the peacock's tail. With humans, this kind of evolutionary pressure became fantastically over-developed and varied, and - unlike the case in many species - both sexes came to engage in it.

Now, in some humans, display takes the form of earning money or being athletic. With me, the display just happens to be primarily verbal. :-)

--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com

"Getting even is one reason for writing."
- William Gass



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References:
The writer's disease (was: A step up, a step down): From: Kirby_Sarah
Re: The writer's disease (was: A step up, a step down): From: Jo Francis Byrd

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