This, our last week of our class, we had to choose a writer from the New York Times series, "Writers on Writing." I chose Elie Wisel because I remember reading his book Night when I was in middle school.
Despite his commentary on religion and me being an atheist, I found his reflections about writing enlightening. He talked about how the magic of the Hasidic stories influenced his tales. It is the Western style of story telling where the wicked are punished and the victims come out on top in the end or as he states, "a world where miracles were a part of everyday life." He talks about Franz Kafka's predecessor, Rabbi Nahman of Bratislav who wished to see his tales turned into prayers, but instead Kafka turned his prayers into tales.
Maybe writing should be like that: to write stories that reflect what we hope to see in the world. That writing should have some kind of message behind it. Maybe our writing we should work to inspire people to bring about some change.
I also liked Wiesel's point about that no matter how little of a chance there is to be published, authentic writers still write because they have no choice. Nowadays, it is easy to have your writings viewed by the entire world; just create a blog. But his talk about how writers have characters that want to get out truly visualize the desire to write.
I am starting a blog focused on PTSD, even though I don't have PTSD myself. I feel that finding an outlet to express oneself could be the best way to help cope with the feelings that combat veterans felt during their time in combat. I think those of us who write have these emotions that want to escape and where we can't truly express how we feel directly, maybe a story or a painting may help us express those feelings.
