"Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again."
C.S. Lewis
As I began to ponder the reality of the questions to which we were asked for this first of many posts, my mind went to this quote by C. S. Lewis. It epitomizes much of my undertanding and belief in reference to the importance of the materiality of the written word. The visual examples of the relationship between the writer and her work is as intimate as the relationship between an artist and her paintbrush. Without that contact, the physical touch and feel of the canvas beneath the brush, an artist can quickly lose understanding of the process through which their masterpeice is created. Thus is the life of a writer. This process is criticial to concise and imaginative thinking and creative processes. It reveals the essence of what C.S. Lewis was saying. Some day, I hope to mature enought to be imaginative again wtihin both writing and reading. The pen thus becomes my weapon, and the paper an avenue through which to execute my glorious plan. It's the physical presence and reality of the words themselves. While there is nothing inerently wrong with electronic forms of written communication, the epic art and reality of the imaginative and creative process is fully realized and manifested for me in the form of weilding a pen and pad.
According to my previous paragraph, the reader can deduce that one of my favorite mediums for writing is the simple pen and paper. This is the intimate, initial creative process through which my ideas are worked out on the canvas of my paper; a masterpeice can than be born. Electronic systems of communication, however, have obvious advantages within the realm of accomplishing effect with communication. Simply stated, they are transmitted, recieved, and written much faster and are more attainable to a larger audience. This is an advantage to the electronic technologies haunting the English world today. This, however, in my opinion must be balanced with the tangible process of working it out on paper, both encouraging gramatic and conceptual foundations critical to a well written peice.
I believe a blog, while highly conducive to an expansive audience, is very much impersonal unless written extremely well. Comments on such posts also create and environment for passivity and in-authenticity, as most people express written comments quite flippantly as opposed to their normal composure of silence within debate. The opportunities, however, are enormous if proper steps can be taken for effective measures. More people can have your nugget of knowledge available to them around the globe. Your work thus becomes public. Not only is it public, but it is free. This is a highly attractive reality to utilizing written mediums like the blog. There is also opportunity to edit and critique your work based off of a broader reader base. Feedback is instantaneous in most cases, therefore application for improvement could provide a quality opportunity.
While my heart's desire is to grow in this maturity of imagination through utlizing the material pen and paper, I understand that maturing with the times is necessary. The question is can I retain this growth materially, while also growing within the realm of thechnological communication?
Soli deo Gloria
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