Why I write
(i) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive, and a strong one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen — in short, with the whole top crust of humanity. The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all — and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers belong in this class. Serious writers, I should say, are on the whole more vain and self-centered than journalists, though less interested in money.
Ohno! I don’t say that although I believe every writer [and blogger] feels that way. George Orwell, in his classic essay, Why I Write lists out four reasons among which the above quote is his first one [via]. I often wonder why the hell we shy away from the obvious truths of life. Hai toh bolne ka, darne ka kay ko! So much for talks on self-promotion and narcissism. Now, lets give a little less hell to those bloggers who claim they write for themselves although I still believe they don’t; the Z has a precise number on those who do.
Technorati Tags: George Orwell, narcissism, writing, blogging, writer, journalist
Pingback: Selective Amnesia » Chenthil sucks