However\u00a0objective you may wish to be as a writer, there will always be a lens through which\u00a0you perceive and colour the world.\u00a0 Your writing will reveal shades of your\u00a0 cultural identity, political affiliations, moral compass and “education”, for example.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The word “education” is an interesting one. From the Latin “educo” (I\u00a0raise up),\u00a0and an even more archaic version “e(x)duco”, the real sense of education is a process whereby one is “led out of” (ignorance?), hence “shaped”. However, it also has the connotation of “leading away” \u2013 which is the aspect I wish to examine.<\/p>\n
\u00a0An “educated”\u00a0individual will always see the world via the filter of his or her specialisation. Even when thinking about something,\u00a0our thoughts are\u00a0clouded by the language with which we are accustomed to associate. When we read the news, we subconsciously choose to read the articles whose headlines proclaim our world view and gloss over those\u00a0which don’t reinforce our gradually accreted belief system.<\/p>\n
On an even more subtle level, one assumes an artifice as a writer. French philosopher Michel Foucault puts it succinctly:<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as you start writing, even if it is under your real name, you start to function as somebody slightly different, as a ‘writer’. You establish from yourself to yourself continuities and a level of coherence which is not quite the same as your real life… All this ends up constituting a kind of neo-identity which is not identical to your identity as a citizen or your social identity. Besides you know this very well, since you want to protect your private life.\u201d<\/p>\n
My little vice is writing in a Victorian style. A bit pedantic for\u00a0the Digital Age\u00a0maybe. Perhaps I’m a romantic. Nostalgic, certainly. Style aside, let’s\u00a0constantly guard againt becoming victims of our own potential dogmatism. Let’s celebrate the multi-faceted nature of “truth”and keep in mind that consensual reality is merely an unwritten societal arrangement for order and civility. And being a “writer” is the right of everyone, irrespective of background or so called “education”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
However\u00a0objective you may wish to be as a writer, there will always be a lens through which\u00a0you perceive and colour the world.\u00a0 Your writing will reveal shades of your\u00a0 cultural identity, political affiliations, moral compass and “education”, for example. \u00a0The … Continue reading