by Toufic Nayel

Created on: April 15, 2009

The heart of a writer beats to a peculiar social rhythm. Take for example, this article that I am now crafting. Digging into a creative process can be challenging. The idea that I'll become immersed into a subject matter, upon which my most personal observation will first conceptualised, then recorded before being offered up to the fickle masses, is both remarkable and frightening. Remarkable in the sense that My Voice( or fictional dream) may be communicated to many readers to absorb into their collective conscious. Some will offer criticism while others kudos, that is the readers prerogative. But that in itself is only the tip of the emotional iceberg. The writer's heart must beat to the pulse of the community that he/she may aspire too.

If a writer is to become part of the literary culture, then he or she must feel the rhythm of society as a whole and transcend the age in which he/she is exposed. TakeHomer for example; even though he took great personal care in the creation of his Epic Hero, making sure the hero-character's persona resonated in sync with the pulse of the day, his work spans the test of time and beats as powerfully today as when it was written. The Odysseys pennedduring a time of military legend and escapade, of trials and tribulation, of political unrest and upheaval...sound familiar? One needs just to read a newspaper or observe any news broadcast to find a correlation. In this Age of Information that today's writers scribble out from, I often wonder who's writing will be read thousands of years from now, if such a time will ever be realised. The obvious answer is a writer that creates pieces upon which both humanity's triumphs and failing is revealed, It is in this true sense of society that we may rise above imagination and into the divinity of creation itself.

In the writer's palette there exists an ever changing monster called WORD. Once long ago, few Words existed and society lived on. Some time later, as we experienced emotions and experiences that we could not describe with limited vocabulary, we added more words. Soon enough, several languages came and went, following the rise and fall of various civilization, until such a time that we began to remove or limit this collective we call language. I'm referring to the recent, popular use of abbreviated words. I point out that the Internet, using various email and/or chat-room protocol, has hastened this trend. It signals a shift in the word as a tool for the advancement of intellect into one of limits to knowledge. I, for one, do not prescribe to this phenomenon of dumbing-down the written word so that i may text quicker or easier. Eric Blair, AKA George Orwell, called in NEW-SPEAK in his groundbreaking novel 1984. What did he know in 1948 when it was published? I suggest that Blair knew that the subject of personal liberties and freedoms would resonate for generations to follow. He sensed that the enigmatic writer would soon disappear as language dissolves. This is the frightening aspect of writing. A writer needs to care for his monster and the vocabulary derived from the WORD beast.

Let us hope and pray that words, in their proper and intended form, will survive the challenges of a society bent on a quickening of their shortening or removal. Even though I recognise that a writer's heart beats to the pulse of society, I resist a trend that will ultimately dispel my craft and offer up whole and complete words from the bottom of my beating heart.

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