Thursday, December 10, 2009

The death of the introverted writer

After writing that title, I realised how redundant and inaccurate it is. And yet, I've decided to keep it because there is no way for me to explain it more succinctly. My writing influences have changed since I went to university because I became versed in the great writers of our times, which is pretty much why I went to uni. And as with all of the great writers in history, they are not easy to read.

Great writing needs to be interpreted, it cannot ever be blatantly obvious.

But that's not all because the real thinkers in literature; the ones that successfully challenge convention and redefine the boundaries of creative thinking are all introverts who struggle with success. One example is Franz Kafka a fellow born in my old hood of Czechoslovakia.

If Kafka were alive today, he would be blogging his angsty little heart out with practically zero page hits. As with all introverts, they live mostly in their own imagination and struggle with regular social interactions. In this day and age to be successful in writing (regardless of your medium) you need to have social networking skills.

You need to be extroverted if you want recognition.

But then again, Kafka's genius wasn't discovered until after his death, so perhaps his posts would stagnate on his blog. That is, until his neighbours discovered it on his computer while investigating the stench of his decomposing corpse. Thus would his work become known to the world.

I find myself doing more social networking than writing lately and what I write can hardly be considered my best or most thought provoking work. Yet it has garnered more attention than anything else that has been unleashed from the unrecognisable mess that is my mind.

It seems paradoxical to me.

But that's the way this world works. You find love when you're not looking for it, you find happiness unexpectedly, or success in another field than the one you want.

Unless you're introverted. Then all that comes after you live a horrible life of neurosis and self doubt. It's only after you've punched your ticket that people realise how unique you really were.

And I really don't want to be that guy shoving his "uniqueness" in peoples faces.

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