71.Writing, Journeys and Privacy

All writing is a journey. That means it is other than YOV.

Does YOVr writing know something YOV don’t know? IS it leading YOV somewhere, and if so where? Could it be leading YOV to writing? Writing is a companion, but it is also a demanding friend who insists that YOV do YOVr best. Writing doesn’t like it when YOV write badly, and let YOVrself down. Writing is a standard and the standard is high.

But then, what is good writing? It might mean beautifully crafted, rhythmic sentences, that take surprising turns and conjure images or enable the reader to see the same ‘ol world in a different light, through the filter of a surprising metaphor. Then again, good writing could equally be staccato phrases and parataxis, lists of words hammered onto the page by a robotic or angry mind.

Like a lot of things, it depends on the context, the mission, the purpose of that particular piece of writing. Does it do well what it needs to do? That is the criteria that decides if it is ‘good’ or not so good. The same might go for YOV. Do YOV do well what YOV need to do? Why judge YOVrself by any other standard than this.

Thus writing, YOVr companion, YOVr honest friend is always there to teach YOV something about YOVrself YOV didn’t know or hadn’t previously managed to articulate clearly enough.

YOv expect and hope that writing will be YOVr companion now until the end of YOVr life. It’s quite a journey, and just as the ‘journey’ of life will be accompanied by writing so every piece of writing, every book, page, paragraph, sentence and even every word is itself a journey. Writing and journeys are, it seems, inextricable, which is fortunate as YOV are someone who has always been passionate about travelling but has little opportunity to travel. Writing enables YOV to travel in other ways.

One thing that every human being needs (maybe, we s should say every creature) is a sense of possibility, the possibility that things might get better, that things can and will change, that there is more and other than this to look forward to. Writing, and its intrinsic dynamics, the little journey that is every word, contains within it this sense of possibility. That is why, to read, is so often to escape, to be transported, to become new, become other and become elsewhere.

If you are writing for YOVrself then you can transport YOVrself and set YOVrself free of YOVr immediate surroundings and limits. If YOV are writing for others then YOV can do the same for them. Think of them reading YOVr writing. Where might they be? At a bus station, in a hospital, in a prison, or a hostel, in a local library, or under a duvet at night with a torch. YOV can carry them away. YOV can even make these different people and different locations appear (as YOV have just done). YOV might even introduce them to each other or enable them to swap places.

YOV may have noticed that this BLog has changed quite dramatically in the past few weeks. It no longer wants to be mistaken for an art critic’s or even an art writer’s Blog. IT doesn’t want to be seen as something useful, instrumental or careerist in that way. It wobbled and almost fell off the internet. But YOV persisted and , for now the Blog seems to have found a more satisfactory, perhaps more intimate and modest role as a writing about writing. Bear with YOV. YOV hope’s YOV still want to follow.

It’s been a big time of change for YOV, and in the wider world too of course.But this BLog is no longer so much about the wider world and is more and more about YOV. This Blog has become YOU’s journey. It’s a private thing really, and recently YOV’ve been wondering about privacy.

What YOV and all of us have been so excited about on the internet is the ability to share everything immediately with others. We all know the possible pitfalls of that, and it is clearly an addictive thing that most people are immediately interesting in doing and find it hard to give up.

But then, privacy is a very precious and beautiful thing when you stop and think about it, and a lack of privacy can be crass, brash and ugly. This Blog is trying to achieve a kind of public privacy, sharing with those who are interested a weekly, quite intimate appointment with YOV. What is YOV thinking? What is YOV doing? Where is YOV going?

 

Advertisement