I have been working for the last two weeks on a longer-than-usual piece. It may or not make it to my blog, but for now working on it is a reasonable excuse for not posting anything here. It’s been hard work.
In the meantime, I have come across a couple of things about expressing ourselves in words that speak to me, though I think to different parts of my brain.
One is from songwriter Lucinda Williams, about whom I confess I’d know nothing had not Garrison Keillor included this in his January 26 Writer’s Almanac: “Above all, the listener should be able to understand the poem or the song, not be forced to unravel a complicated, self-indulgent puzzle. Offer your art up to the whole world, not just an elite few.”
The other is from columnist Marc Munroe Dion of the Fall River (Mass.) HeraldNews, reprinted in this morning’s Plain Dealer. Dion laments the poor state of oratory (including what the headline writer dubs as “Obamatory”), stating that today “we as a people would slaughter any attempt at the great phrase.” After giving examples, Dion writes:
“We know everything. We are beyond the noble word, below the soaring phrase, proud in our cynicism, more receptive to sarcasm than to prayer. You can’t fool us, and to prove it, we rip and tear at every utterance until it is shown to be a hallow trick. Those speaking to us no longer even seek to inspire, because we laugh at inspiration. The stand-up comic suits our mood more than the prayerful leader.”
How is a writer to write (or a speaker to speak, or a singer to sing) to a public such as ours? Somewhere between simply so everyone can get it and nobly so someone might be moved, I guess.
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