WHO WAS THAT MASKED MAN???

I just finished perusing a few of the other blogs that this site has to offer. Sometimes, I find it really interesting to read about complete strangers' lives. It sort of reminds me of postsecret, even though the blogs that I have accessed have been anything but confidential. In spite of the very personal writing, there is a distinct anonymity that comes with reading that ramblings of a person you have never met, and likely never will meet. I hope that like myself, the unrecognized authors out there get a little satisfaction from the prospect of complete strangers reading their musings and relating, if only for a fleeting moment. I realize that I might be a little idealistic and pretentious to think that a stranger may gain any sort of insight or satisfaction from reading the tripe that I publish, but I do not care. When I first began writing this blog, I didn't care one little iota whether or not anyone read it beyond myself. However, time makes fools of us all, I suppose. Now, I get a little comfort when I think that some anonymous individual out there may someday read my little insignificant corner of the internet, and perhaps, possibly, maybe enjoy it.

THE THINGS WE COME UP WITH AT 1AM

I was having a conversation with my friend Ryan last night over an independent film from the seventies and a few beers. The topic of conversation was literature and writing. We discussed what it takes for an individual to become proficient at writing. Since last night, I have given consideration to our discussion, and have reached the following conclusions. Writing is something that you are either good at or you aren't. Sure, there is room for improvement in all cases, and practice is always necessary to keep a mind sharp. However, I am sure that most knowledgeable people would agree with me when I say that proficient writers have an innate ability to relate their exact emotions to large amounts of strangers with little to be lost in translation. This is something that cannot be taught, although it may be refined. It something that goes beyond aligning symbols on paper. Kurt Vonnegut once described writing as idiosyncratic arrangements of 26 phonetic symbols and ten Arabic numbers in horizontal lines on a page. Given Vonnegut's penchant for satire and irony, it is safe to assume that he was speaking rather simplistically. Grammar can be taught to even the simplest mind, although more often than not, the simplest minds ignore grammar. In my opinion, the ability to write is based in a person's ability to recognize the common bonds between two people, living, or dead, real or fictional, and to evoke emotion, because that is what makes us human. Capturing this moment in words is was makes a good writer a brilliant one.