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(“A self-forgetful, perfectly useless concentration”
October 25th, 2007 | Posted in Technical Writing |
I read an essay by Alan Shapiro last week titled “Why Write?” In it he summarizes a letter from Elizabeth Bishop that provides a thought-provoking, unique reason for writing. Here’s the passage:
Elizabeth Bishop provides a possible answer [for why we write] in a famous letter to Anne Stevenson. Bishop writes that what we want from great art is the same thing necessary for its creation, and that is a self-forgetful, perfectly useless concentration.
We write, Bishop implies, for the same reason we read or look at paintings or listen to music: for the total immersion of the experience, the narrowing and intensification of focus to the right here, right now, the deep joy of bringing the entire soul to bear upon a single act of concentration.
It is self-forgetful even if you are writing about the self, because you yourself have disappeared into the pleasure of making; your identity — the incessant, transient, noisy New York Stock Exchange of desires and commitments, ambitions, hopes, hates, appeties, and interests — has been obliterated by the rapture of complete attentiveness.
In that extended moment, opposites cohere: the mind feels and the heart thinks, and receptivity’s a form of fierce activity. Quotidian distinctions between mind and body, self and other, space and time, dissolve. (”Why Write?” 2006 Best American Essay, p. 207)
In other words, Shapiro goes on to explain, we write because we enjoy going into “the zone.” His answer is interesting because the motivation for writing also serves as the motivation for a lot of other things — running, playing basketball, watching movies, reading, ironing, gardening. Don’t all these mediums offer their own “zone” experience?
Do we sometimes not feel like writing because we’ve found another zone experience to replace it with? Most troubling, why does our mind need such a primordial, zen-like experience? As if sleep weren’t enough.
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Tags: Alan Shapiro, the zone, writing
October 25th, 2007 at 1:53 am
[...] self-forgetful, perfectly useless concentration” Tom added an interesting post on âA self-forgetful, perfectly useless [...]
October 26th, 2007 at 6:33 pm
The state you, Shapiro, and Bishop are talking about has been described in the psychology literature as “flow”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)
Why does it trouble you that our minds like to have such experiences? I don’t see it as a problem. A whole lot of religion and philosophy is geared toward getting ourselves to “be here now”. What’s wrong with that?
October 29th, 2007 at 11:29 am
I think we sometimes feel like not writing for a number of reasons.
Sometimes it’s sheer physical balance — we’re not in a physical or mental place where we’re going to get into the “zone,” and we balk at exerting all that energy for what we suspect will probably be a draining experience rather than an exhilarating one.
Also, while I think the notion that people often write for the pleasure of being in that flow state, I don’t think that’s the *only* reason we write, nor the only factor in making us resist writing.
I know fear of failure plays a prominent role. With creative writing, fear of exposure and of being judged can throw up big road blocks.
I do think it’s wonderful that so many experiences offer access to the flow state — true zen thought does not promote specifically religious experience as the sole door to spiritual enlightenment, but rather every action and thought. Which opens up many doors of opportunity!
October 29th, 2007 at 11:31 am
(That should have been: “Also, while I think the notion that people often write for the pleasure of being in that flow state *is true*, I don’t think…”)
October 31st, 2007 at 10:30 am
Beth, thanks for the insight here. I agree with you about the energy required to get into the zone. Re reasons for writing, one of the main ideas Shapiro is reacting to is the notion that we write out of a psychological need to deal with trauma in our lives, that writing is therapy. I’ve always disliked that idea.
I started writing an essay last week but abandoned it because I just couldn’t get excited writing for a venue with so few readers (journal print publishing). I really enjoy blog writing because the interaction is more abundant. Maybe I’m shortchanging myself, but I think Web 2.0 mediums will dominate in the future.
January 30th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
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