Restoring My Faith in Literature
Being a technical writer and doing various freelance writing gigs has brought me to an impasse for my passion of literature. At this point in my life, stuck between college and the burdening expectations of a successful future career, at this point after writing 11 books, after being consumed by poetry and stories for almost my whole childhood; I find myself wondering, what is the point of these words that come from my soul? Do they even matter?
Now, this article, if you’ve ever felt the same way, probably won’t have any definite answers for you but I hope that through some of my contemplations on this matter, I can make sense of something, something that is desperately trying to piece itself together within my chest.
The theory is that words, on their own, have no significance at all, but the feelings they evoke are what give them their endless power. Now if one can hurt through words, then they can also heal through them. Similarly, if one can create new worlds, fantasy worlds, through words, then one can also find a way to face their tough realities through them. Through words, one can escape their ambitious mind, their wild heart and face the truths of their soul. One can face their inner monsters without any hatred and rather with curiosity and contemplation.
I will talk of literature in a personal context moving forwards; I am a writer who typically writes on dark concepts pertaining to aspects of the human nature. In Reina: The Beginning of War, there was a supernatural beast in Reina’s soul and the only way for Reina to keep her monster in check was to feed it pain and suffering. This suffering could be internal or external. She could either harm herself or harm others, the monster only needed some kind of pain to fulfil its hunger. In The Unraveling, a little girl finds a friend in a demon, who fills her with rage and protects her from the grief of her past. There are metaphors of the inner monster in these pieces of literature and hence for the reader, it would be a good confrontation - a philosophical exploration of their demons, instead of being an unleashing of morally wrong deeds and the inner wrath at any given point of time in their lives. Through literature, one finds a way to be consumed by their darkness without becoming it.
These texts, to me, feel important because I felt a beast had been born within me after some experiences that had hurt me a lot. But then I have always been of the mindset that these thoughts and urges are not unique to me. At the end of the day, I am human and it is human nature to feel these things. So why shouldn’t these words be important?
They’re not describing something but rather understanding many situations in people’s lives in a metaphorical way that needs to be read with an active soul and critical mind to be understood with recognition.
So why do these words matter?
Because if they didn’t, the world would lose faith in itself.
Because if they didn’t, the world would rather kill itself.
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