Writing; The Act of
Writing, the act of writing. I thought that starting with this topic at the beginning of this year was interesting, as after all this is the exact act I was doing back then and am doing right now.
I had plans back then, to keep up a habit of writing about stuffs. Most of the time it involves me finding some time to sit down, finding a topic or two, and writing down whatever is in my mind at the moment about them, as much as possible. The end result might not be very deep or very philosophical, but it is definitely thoughtful.
Back when I was in pre-college school, I’d never been good at writing. In fact, I hated it, so much that if someone were to tell me that in the near future I would consider writing one of my interests, I would not believe it at all. But on the other hand, I back then also had no idea that I would be interested in computer science and academic research, so I suppose everything is possible.
This… plan of writing. I had no idea how long it’ll last, and I probably thought it wouldn’t last. I hoped to write regularly for this year at least, and see where we go from there, but obviously that has not been the case. After all I do this out of interest, not of necessity, and I write as I please, when I feel like doing so. I have such freedom and leisure after all.
Ever since I was just a wee little kid, writing and literature had been the bane of me. From primary school, middle & high school, SAT writing tests, up to freshman-mandatory writing courses in college, all of these I’ve performed… acceptably, but in no way excellently in. I was good at English and writing in English back when I was not in the US, but to be honest those writing courses and exams had a very, very low bar, and being good at the English language is more than enough for me to excel in that.
Then as a junior and senior undergrad student, after reluctantly taking what’s called ‘professional writing’ courses, I started to realize that this sort of writing that does not rely on… style, or technique, or whatever you call it, but instead requires the writer to simplify and explain complex concepts to illustrate and elucidate, is perhaps more suitable for me. Including writing academic papers and theses.
How I explain this disparity myself is that I’m much more a logical than a literal person, better acquainted to the hardcore logics required by disciplines such as mathematics or theoretical computer science. I am sufficiently trained to decompose high-level concepts into basic steps and ideas, and I don’t consider it hard to stream this sequence of logic in order to help others understand. But if you were to ask me to convince others of a subjective opinion, I might be able to, but I can’t say I’m good at the ‘softcore logic’ that this requires. I’m bad at figuring out the thought of others.
So I’m not very good at that. But I suppose that’s fine. There’s no longer any need for me to convince others of my subjective opinions. Academic writing can be satiated by hardcore logic and knowledge, and writing here I do not intend to convince anyone of anything, but to document my thoughts and share it with others, leaving it up to them whether they agree or not.
So let’s expand on that. Why do I write here in this blog of sorts? In summary and retrospect, I did not have a solid goal for this, but more of a desire to write something, think about something meaningful. To write these meaningful thoughts down, is to help myself better concretize these ideas, to keep a record of my philosophy, and to share these thoughts to those interested in philosophy, myself, or simply what others think.
Towards the second of the three - record-keeping: I think I’m quite forgetful, so to print my thoughts down, to concretize many of my fragmented, chaotic, often time whimsical philosophies, is good. These concrete records can be saved digitally, online or offline. To give myself a chance to look back on what I wrote, what I thought, to retrospect on my own mind against the passage of time, is good.
Towards the third of the three - sharing: I’m not a very extroverted person, and don’t really fancy bothering people other than a select few close friends with my abstract and philosophical rumination. To take my own thoughts and forcefully push it upon others is quite rude after all. Now if someone were to want to discuss whatever topic with me, I would take pleasure in the crossing of thoughts between us, but I’m fairly certain that not everyone would prefer this. Thus, I’d rather write down my thoughts somewhere more permanent than a conversation, and let others feed on it based on their own time and interest.
Although I consider creative writing as one of my major extracurricular interests, I don’t consider ‘creating’ and writing the same topic. ‘Creating’, as the act of creation and the existence of creative desire, is independent, in my opinion, with the act of writing by itself, as the latter is more of a method, to express and present the thoughts in one’s mind, while the former is more of a goal, to share oneself with others and invite them to think and incite their desire to think.
There are many, most if not all, times that this difference is rather vague, just like the difference between the two concepts of method and goal. To be honest, I am not sure what I was doing back then, and what I am also doing right now: It is undoubtedly an act of writing, but is it an act of creating?
Nonetheless, independent from this discussion about the act of writing, my thoughts about the act of creation is more idealistic and spiritual, so I’d left it to a later date. I’ve since then written another blog post to discuss my opinions and thoughts on creation and creative desire, and I’ll translate it over to English at a later date.
I was similarly talking to a friend of mine, in the final few days of 2021, about this plan of writing, creating, and blog-keeping. He resonated with my desire to write things, but as our discussion sank deeper into the lake of philosophy, we discovered that our opinions on writing, our reason to write, are exactly in opposition. I write my thoughts down to present to the void, not for anyone in particular; He write things to satisfy his own exhibitive desires, to sell himself, to attract the thinking minds of others. There is no grade between the two - I’m not saying that one is better than the other. To write, to create, no matter the purpose, is good, as long as it is meaningful.
At their foundation, the writing and creation my friend and I take pleasure in is not so different, and is simply a concretization of our internal thoughts. There is however an opposition in our purposes, which drives us in two completely different directions. An antimony, if you will.
Antimony is quite an interesting concept, isn’t it?
Composed: Jan 02, 2022. West Lafayette, Indiana.
Translated: Aug 31, 2022. West Lafayette, Indiana.