unnecessarily manifesto
Admittedly, I have repeatedly questioned the value of what I have set out to do. From a young age I had been fascinated by written words, but now I have finally become disillusioned with them. As an aspiring author, I unwittingly find myself bound to a class where I squander my days trudging through sentences as long as paragraphs, and looking for meaning where I do not see any. What is the purpose of this investment, whose only return is the mastery of impossible writing styles from at least a hundred years past? What am I doing here, searching for a deeper message behind the works of bygone authors, when it could all be a wild goose chase after all?
And must there be meaning, or complexity, in all that I do? I seek to delight with my words, is that not enough? It brings me pleasure, it arouses my interest, is that not enough? Must I always complain about society or express a profound observation or raise a courageous question? Need I only write in winding sentences, speak in riddles, wield uncommon vocabulary?
Admit it, will I, that some of the greatest authors in history (whom I adore and seek to emulate) are boring, long-winded, and unintelligible in our time. The work that I have done, the years that I have dedicated to read, know, and analyze them -- these are efforts that no one owes to me in return. Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens -- for years they have enjoyed an iron grip on me, and in this free world I can hardly hope to exercise such a hold on anyone else. No one will understand unless I am clear, nor be interested unless I am interesting.
Admit it, will I, that art and literature are of no real service to society. Live or die, I will make no difference as to whether somebody else lives or dies. And yet I stubbornly maintain that art and literature exist as the heart of a people. The Greeks and their epics, the Chinese and their ceramics, the French and their paintings: they are not remembered as a people for surviving. They are remembered and honored for the art they have left behind. For, with every one that upholds society, there must be one that furthers civilization, because with every cherished life, there need also be a legacy.
And I, I want to surprise and captivate, to elicit tears and laughter and gasps of horror. Art for art’s sake: that is what I have set out to do. Experts and laymen, everyone and all: that is my audience. Beauty and simplicity: these are my commodities, and perhaps -- my meaning.
