Literary Neurotics
Posted: Sun Sep 19, 2004 8:55 am
*note* this article is totally unproofed, too tired by the time I finished it to care if there's a typo or something out of order, I'm sure you can deal with. <img src=\'http://www.killanet.net/forum3/public/s ... >/blum.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\':P\' />
~~
I started pondering the state of today's true literary artists while replying to Vercz's post in this section; perhaps what brought it to mind is the emotional state of many of us when we do our best writing, for most of us in the form of poetry, some with poetry and longer, story pieces. Also coincidental, this evening while I was still thinking on what to put in this article, the movie "Sylvia" appeared on the movie channel.
I don't think it's any odd coincidence that one form of writing which moves so many people is borne of the two greatest spectrums on the emotional scale: despair/depression and at the other end happiness/love. A genre which has rarely made anyone rich in modern society yet at one time if you were a poet and accepted by the masses for your work, society was yours. The great writers of the past were once like the movie stars of today....and not just poets, but the story tellers-Hemingway, Dickens, Wilde, Rossetti and so many others were treated the same way.
Many of the literary world's greatest authors suffered or appeared to suffer from some type of emotional distress or another. Many of them were impacted early in life by emotional trauma, which would grow and proliferate itself throughout their adult lives. Byron was taunted for having a club foot; Plath's father died when she was 8, leaving her filled with despair coupled with anger; Shelley was tormented in school, filling him with unexpressed rage; Wilde lost a younger sister whom he loved dearly, when he was 12 years old.
The apparent correlation of the greatest literary authors with some type of neuroticism is hardly a new idea. Dylan Thomas pointed out this relationship in his 1933 article "Genius and Madness Akin in the World of Art" where he noted that one gifted with genius often walked a line where it was "difficult to differentiate, with any sureness, between insanity and eccentricity." He further asserted that "the borderline of insanity is more difficult to trace than the majority of people, comparatively safe within the barriers of their own common-sensibility, can realise." Not surprisingly, Thomas himself suffered from this "eccentricity" throughout his life. Yet like so many before him, and those who came after-his eccentricities and his elevation in society as a celebrity made him the "movie star" of the time. Certainly by Dylan Thomas' time, the somewhat wanton celebrity of the literary world was beginning to wane, being replaced by the stars of the silver screen and eventually by the stars of the smaller silver screen, television.
Looking back in time, the greatest masters of the written word were in demand at royal courts world wide. Catherine the Great would not rest until she had one of her idols, Voltaire, to her court. Certainly the neuroticisms and antics of many of the great classic authors were for the most part tolerated; they were certainly good for months of gossip and entertainment in a world where live theatre, music, and literature were the primary forms of entertainment. Even the behaviour which bordered on scandalous was scorned in public, but revered as conversational fodder in private. Possibly unknown to the adoring public was the fact that the emotional polarities suffered by these authors was what produced their greatest works.
So what is the point of this brief sojourn into a glance at our literary greats? It's just something which occurred to me this morning. Slowly becoming a part of written history as they pass on-Christie, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Mailer, Tolkien, Plath to name a very few of the 20th century's greatest literary authors. While their works have inspired adaptations to the stage and screen, they are becoming a very endangered species. It appears that many of the modern "stars" of the literary world are judged on the saleability of their works as movies of the week, features, and mini-series.
In watching one of the shows I do which focusses on authors, one of the first things mentioned in the author's introduction is how many of his or her books have been made into films, or how many are optioned for film. Any "irregularities" in their behaviour are often hidden from the press, for certainly it would become fodder for gossip magazines, and something the person in question feels he or she has to hide from their adoring public. I wonder if this stifling of behaviour is what is responsible for the great amount of "fluff" being passed off as literature today. So many are more concerned about making the money and appearing "normal" to their audience, that they may tend to deny the eruptive passions which made them great authors in the first place. Sadly the truly non-neurotic ones may be destined to forever churn out their formula books, lacking the emotional depth and connection to their work which was a way of life for Poe, Dickinson, and others.
If anything else, today's young authors should not be afraid to embrace their polarities and neuroses for it is this passion churning inside them which will give them the voice they need. Depression or happiness-whatever it is you are feeling at the time, get it out and get it on paper for it is from here that your strongest writing will appear. While there are certainly limits to the depths you may allow yourself to go; if you are feeling like you've lost control, or despondency has come to rule you instead of you ruling it, this may be a time to seek some sort of help. Just because these emotions are the passion behind your writing, that is no reason for them to drive you to irreversible actions such as the suicidal end chosen by Sylvia Plath. A young life, a great literalist gone at such a young age because she felt nothing more than despondency and misunderstanding. Certainly she felt abandoned...first by her father, then by her unfaithful husband but as Thomas pointed out, there is a very thin line between neuroticy and insanity, and it is up to you to recognize where that line may lie.
It would be easy at this point to say "but how can I know when I'm insane, if I'm insane?" That is something only your inner voice can answer, and up to you to hear it tell you. Emotions are a powerful tool-they can build and they can destroy. It is up the weilder of such tools as to how they are used, to embrace them and use their passion to express what you're feeling. Make your readers feel your pain, your joy-make them feel it so much it's like you've painted a picture before their eyes. It may be giving your insanity voice which ends up keeping you sane in the long run.
~~
I started pondering the state of today's true literary artists while replying to Vercz's post in this section; perhaps what brought it to mind is the emotional state of many of us when we do our best writing, for most of us in the form of poetry, some with poetry and longer, story pieces. Also coincidental, this evening while I was still thinking on what to put in this article, the movie "Sylvia" appeared on the movie channel.
I don't think it's any odd coincidence that one form of writing which moves so many people is borne of the two greatest spectrums on the emotional scale: despair/depression and at the other end happiness/love. A genre which has rarely made anyone rich in modern society yet at one time if you were a poet and accepted by the masses for your work, society was yours. The great writers of the past were once like the movie stars of today....and not just poets, but the story tellers-Hemingway, Dickens, Wilde, Rossetti and so many others were treated the same way.
Many of the literary world's greatest authors suffered or appeared to suffer from some type of emotional distress or another. Many of them were impacted early in life by emotional trauma, which would grow and proliferate itself throughout their adult lives. Byron was taunted for having a club foot; Plath's father died when she was 8, leaving her filled with despair coupled with anger; Shelley was tormented in school, filling him with unexpressed rage; Wilde lost a younger sister whom he loved dearly, when he was 12 years old.
The apparent correlation of the greatest literary authors with some type of neuroticism is hardly a new idea. Dylan Thomas pointed out this relationship in his 1933 article "Genius and Madness Akin in the World of Art" where he noted that one gifted with genius often walked a line where it was "difficult to differentiate, with any sureness, between insanity and eccentricity." He further asserted that "the borderline of insanity is more difficult to trace than the majority of people, comparatively safe within the barriers of their own common-sensibility, can realise." Not surprisingly, Thomas himself suffered from this "eccentricity" throughout his life. Yet like so many before him, and those who came after-his eccentricities and his elevation in society as a celebrity made him the "movie star" of the time. Certainly by Dylan Thomas' time, the somewhat wanton celebrity of the literary world was beginning to wane, being replaced by the stars of the silver screen and eventually by the stars of the smaller silver screen, television.
Looking back in time, the greatest masters of the written word were in demand at royal courts world wide. Catherine the Great would not rest until she had one of her idols, Voltaire, to her court. Certainly the neuroticisms and antics of many of the great classic authors were for the most part tolerated; they were certainly good for months of gossip and entertainment in a world where live theatre, music, and literature were the primary forms of entertainment. Even the behaviour which bordered on scandalous was scorned in public, but revered as conversational fodder in private. Possibly unknown to the adoring public was the fact that the emotional polarities suffered by these authors was what produced their greatest works.
So what is the point of this brief sojourn into a glance at our literary greats? It's just something which occurred to me this morning. Slowly becoming a part of written history as they pass on-Christie, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Mailer, Tolkien, Plath to name a very few of the 20th century's greatest literary authors. While their works have inspired adaptations to the stage and screen, they are becoming a very endangered species. It appears that many of the modern "stars" of the literary world are judged on the saleability of their works as movies of the week, features, and mini-series.
In watching one of the shows I do which focusses on authors, one of the first things mentioned in the author's introduction is how many of his or her books have been made into films, or how many are optioned for film. Any "irregularities" in their behaviour are often hidden from the press, for certainly it would become fodder for gossip magazines, and something the person in question feels he or she has to hide from their adoring public. I wonder if this stifling of behaviour is what is responsible for the great amount of "fluff" being passed off as literature today. So many are more concerned about making the money and appearing "normal" to their audience, that they may tend to deny the eruptive passions which made them great authors in the first place. Sadly the truly non-neurotic ones may be destined to forever churn out their formula books, lacking the emotional depth and connection to their work which was a way of life for Poe, Dickinson, and others.
If anything else, today's young authors should not be afraid to embrace their polarities and neuroses for it is this passion churning inside them which will give them the voice they need. Depression or happiness-whatever it is you are feeling at the time, get it out and get it on paper for it is from here that your strongest writing will appear. While there are certainly limits to the depths you may allow yourself to go; if you are feeling like you've lost control, or despondency has come to rule you instead of you ruling it, this may be a time to seek some sort of help. Just because these emotions are the passion behind your writing, that is no reason for them to drive you to irreversible actions such as the suicidal end chosen by Sylvia Plath. A young life, a great literalist gone at such a young age because she felt nothing more than despondency and misunderstanding. Certainly she felt abandoned...first by her father, then by her unfaithful husband but as Thomas pointed out, there is a very thin line between neuroticy and insanity, and it is up to you to recognize where that line may lie.
It would be easy at this point to say "but how can I know when I'm insane, if I'm insane?" That is something only your inner voice can answer, and up to you to hear it tell you. Emotions are a powerful tool-they can build and they can destroy. It is up the weilder of such tools as to how they are used, to embrace them and use their passion to express what you're feeling. Make your readers feel your pain, your joy-make them feel it so much it's like you've painted a picture before their eyes. It may be giving your insanity voice which ends up keeping you sane in the long run.