Why Do We Write?

It is an exploration of minds and matters and what they mean to us, an observation of things, nature, humans and, to pierce into mystery of what is underneath, inside and out there, beyond what eyes can see, the sounds one can hear, a life process records of human journey and perceptions exploring the realities defined by each one of them (us) uniquely, distinctly and, (may be) subjectively and differently.

In a gathering in Phoenix, AZ (USA), I met a young teacher by profession who asked me what I did for a living - a common question, part of an introduction process.

“Just trying to become a writer,” I replied.

“Oh really? I could never do that,” She replied.

“Why is that?” That was my next question.

“Oh I would feel so naked, vulnerable and exposed.”

After a brief pause she continued, “Not sure I can handle the scrutiny.”

Quite amazed, I exclaimed, “Wow! You said what a noted Nepali writer/politician said a few decades ago.”

“How real! Who is that?

I thought of what BP Koirala once said, “In literature, even a King is naked.”

But why would one want to be naked, on display, critically examined and dissected, peeled and often thrashed. Where is the fun? Trying to answer that, I looked at some of the writers as to what they have to say.

Recently I read about an African American urban young writer who caught my attention as I did not know what constituted an urban writing, a new terminology for me.

Miasha is only 30 years old and has sold over 200,000 copies to her credit. With six books out in three years; her contracts totaling $400,000 and photo ops with Jamie Fox, Kanye West, Jay Z, CBS Morning show, Essence, Black Entertainment television, by any definition she is a successful businessperson. How good a writer she is a different question. They call her work hip-hop lit, street-lit, and ghetto fiction yet she has been successfully churning out books. She grew up in a crack home with addicted parents in an infested environment yet her success, as improbable it should have been, is just the opposite.

A mix of sex, drugs and glamour and galore is urban fiction may not have “beauty of language, a sense of redemption, no illumination on the social roots of ugliness” her critics say and yet she claims to be a ‘real story’ of the drug, crime, killing in urban America should be of no surprise as it simply tops the world.

According to Barnes and Noble, the big book store chain, urban fiction outsells classics by black authors such as Richard Wright, Raph Ellison, Zora Neale Huston, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker.

Public mainstream perception is that hip-hop stars in America celebrate violence and materialism. A street writer Styles says, “You are not going to tell me that where I am from and what I have been through is not worth reading.” Of course, the rewards are huge in dollars and cents if you can sell.

Miasha says, “You sell anything or everything to survive from where I am from!”

She sure sells well, no question.

Miasha’s grandmother died when she was nine. Her mother split from her father when she was five and just left her. Crack addicts, prostitution around her were an everyday affair. When she was 12, her aunt took her as her surroundings got so bad. Miasha says she writes as, “Writing allowed me to get out all the pain and emotion I was going through, without embarrassment and judgment.”

Recently I also asked some Nepali writers as to why they wrote? This is what author Jagdish Ghimire has to say.

“When I started writing some 45 years ago, I wanted to be a ‘writer’. I have no answer to the next logical question – why did you want to be a ‘writer?’ I don’t know the answer. All I knew then that good writers were described as ‘great’. I guess I wanted to become “great”. When I wrote a few books and other pieces I discovered that there should be a social purpose. And ever since I wanted to pursue that, something with a purpose.”

My “Antarmanko Yatra” did not have any of the above reasons. When I was not able to do anything in the hospital, I wanted to share my views based on my life’s observation and experience. I guess I have some social purpose there. But basically, I wrote to avoid my boredom. It is similar to doing reading to pass time or avoid boredom, not necessarily to gain knowledge or for some action.”

BP Koirala wrote as he explored human nature, psychology of mind, chaos and disorders in life. As much as he was for an order in politics with defined goals in literature he was a vagabond exploring the intricacies and complexities and mystery and psycho-analysis of a woman, subject matter of his fascination throughout his writings. Many think he understood a woman-sex and the psyche, the intricacies and internal complexities, mind and the matter. In politics, he looked for an order in literature, he was a vagabond, an anarchist as we will characterize himself. Another vagabond was author Jack Kourac, a well known Beat writer.

To my following question this is what Manjushree Thapa has to say.

“Is creativity real juice for an artist, a new way of looking at things? Is it a new/renewed subjective perspective or a thundering experience for an artist? What is your view?”

“My view of writing is quite modest. I write because the world does not make sense to me if I don’t write. That is how I am constituted mentally. (I often think I am a bit dense).”

Henry David Thoreau, an American philosopher, lived in utter simplicity. He wanted to share the beauty of simplicity in real life as he lived and wrote. He romanticized nature and solitude. Somerset Maugham, the famous English writer, preferred writing over medicine - his profession. John Steinbeck left Stanford to pursue his passion of writing full time.

So why do we write?

It is a record of that journey with or without a destination. In that process s/he could be exposed. Should s/he care?

I do not think so!

(Arun Sharma is an engineer and a writer)