Throughout several weeks of study – throughout dense conversations about discourse communities, technology, and especially identity – one simple truth rears its head right now. Anyone can write.
Having been told to read Stephen King’s Top 20 Rules is a funny bookend. I had been reading On Writing – the book that the written rules originate from – going into this class in September. I don’t agree with the whole book, nor do I exactly agree with all of the rules. King even says that not everyone can make this their calling. His nineteenth rule, however, stands tall over his personal feelings: “You become a writer simply by reading and writing.” Anyone can do that much, certainly.
Doris Lessing, shortly after receiving a Nobel Prize in Literature, spoke on behalf of those who couldn’t. In theory, there are reams of people who can’t read or write in practice. Education and literacy are a luxury. The enthusiasm for learning. The drive to read and write. Those are universal, it seems. She laments “voices unheard,” but acknowledges the endless hunger for books, for knowledge.
So, yes. Anyone can write.
Maybe not everyone will be able to, in the first place. Maybe not everyone will even want to write as a long-term job. God knows it’s not the most heavily-rewarded profession. Yet, our place in the world is determined by how we communicate, and how we communicate determines who we are. It’s something of a mutual relationship that gets messier on a per-person basis.
Anyone can write. Dare I say that anyone should write. Even if they’re not keeping a blog for 14 weeks. Someone should have that type of experience. If they can get to it, it’s one of the greatest gifts they’ve been given. To know how to put your thoughts into tangible being? It truly is.
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