Staying who we are.
Don Delillo says: "Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals.”
Delillo is right that there are forces in our society that attempt to squeeze us into groupings, arranging us into tidy demographical pockets to make us easier to control. Advertisers aim at certain groups, and tailor their message to what they anticipate the "average" member of a particular "mass identity" will want to hear. So an ad aimed at males aged 18-24 who are mainly concerned with finding hot babes will be very different from an ad aimed at a senior citizen with reduced mobility. Television programming targets people in the same way, just like any other form of media. One has to wonder what effect these forces have on the individual psyche. With enough content aimed at the version of us we're expected to be, do we become more like that version without even meaning to? The desire to fit in is hard-wired into the human mind from millions of years of social evolution, and there are very smart people out there trying to take advantage of this human tendency for their own profit. If we're not careful, instead of fitting in as the people we are on the inside, it's very easy to fit in as the person we're supposed to be, and we end up playing a role. I think we all resist the pressure to be a certain type of "consumer" as best we can. Like Delillo, the way I do it is through writing.
I don't think I'm the only writer who chose this profession out of the fear of disappearing in the throng. I don't want to pass from this earth without having contributed something real and lasting. I don't know whether anything I write will be read by future generations, but I do feel that every book we read changes us. So in some small way, I might have had a real impact on my readers. I hope they've felt better about life because of my books, or inspired, or that at least I've made them laugh. This comforts me. It makes me feel like I matter. I do recognized that my books are targeted at a certain "mass identity." After all, I'm part of the media. But that isn't until I send my pages off to my editor, who tries to figure out how to get my message out there. When I write, I'm not thinking about a demographic group. I'm thinking about my characters, the story, the words. This is an individual, solitary, and deeply meaningful process. How it's packaged is, for the most part, out of my hands. But I will say that my publisher, like most, cares about the words, the characters, the message, just as much as I do. Not all media is about squashing people.
I don't think writers are the only people struggling against the currents that try to wrestle away our individuality. I imagine the motivations are similar for any kind of artist, but producing some product isn't the only way, either. Some people find shelter from modern life in their families, or in a profession in which they help people. Or in hobbies. Every person on earth struggles against the tides in their own way. Some of us need an audience, but most of us don't. There's really nothing so special about writers, or our mission. Writing is one of thousands of ways to express one's humanity. It's just important that we're all a part of the realness that life offers, rather than the image of life so often imposed on us.
Delillo is right that there are forces in our society that attempt to squeeze us into groupings, arranging us into tidy demographical pockets to make us easier to control. Advertisers aim at certain groups, and tailor their message to what they anticipate the "average" member of a particular "mass identity" will want to hear. So an ad aimed at males aged 18-24 who are mainly concerned with finding hot babes will be very different from an ad aimed at a senior citizen with reduced mobility. Television programming targets people in the same way, just like any other form of media. One has to wonder what effect these forces have on the individual psyche. With enough content aimed at the version of us we're expected to be, do we become more like that version without even meaning to? The desire to fit in is hard-wired into the human mind from millions of years of social evolution, and there are very smart people out there trying to take advantage of this human tendency for their own profit. If we're not careful, instead of fitting in as the people we are on the inside, it's very easy to fit in as the person we're supposed to be, and we end up playing a role. I think we all resist the pressure to be a certain type of "consumer" as best we can. Like Delillo, the way I do it is through writing.
I don't think I'm the only writer who chose this profession out of the fear of disappearing in the throng. I don't want to pass from this earth without having contributed something real and lasting. I don't know whether anything I write will be read by future generations, but I do feel that every book we read changes us. So in some small way, I might have had a real impact on my readers. I hope they've felt better about life because of my books, or inspired, or that at least I've made them laugh. This comforts me. It makes me feel like I matter. I do recognized that my books are targeted at a certain "mass identity." After all, I'm part of the media. But that isn't until I send my pages off to my editor, who tries to figure out how to get my message out there. When I write, I'm not thinking about a demographic group. I'm thinking about my characters, the story, the words. This is an individual, solitary, and deeply meaningful process. How it's packaged is, for the most part, out of my hands. But I will say that my publisher, like most, cares about the words, the characters, the message, just as much as I do. Not all media is about squashing people.
I don't think writers are the only people struggling against the currents that try to wrestle away our individuality. I imagine the motivations are similar for any kind of artist, but producing some product isn't the only way, either. Some people find shelter from modern life in their families, or in a profession in which they help people. Or in hobbies. Every person on earth struggles against the tides in their own way. Some of us need an audience, but most of us don't. There's really nothing so special about writers, or our mission. Writing is one of thousands of ways to express one's humanity. It's just important that we're all a part of the realness that life offers, rather than the image of life so often imposed on us.
posted by Amy at 7:55 AM
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