For there will always be ratio between finite things, but between the finite and the infinite there can never be any comparison. Wherefore, however long drawn out may be the life of your fame, it is not even small, but it is absolutely nothing when compared with eternity.
– Boethius, from Consolation of Philosophy
When I was studying poetry writing at the University of Pittsburgh I studied with a brilliant poet named Tony Hoagland. I believe I’ve mentioned him before in previous posts I’ve written like here and here. Once when we were in his class, and remember this was back in the early 2000’s mind you (so it was quite some time ago relative to technology and such!!! Sheesh am I giving away too much about just how old I am becoming!!) – nevertheless I recall him saying to us, almost like an order or military command, that as writers and artists we must disconnect from the world regularly. We must be by ourselves, be with ourselves, and with the pace of life and the world all around us. In case you weren’t aware, our phones and social media and technology in general seems to have a tendency towards the polar opposite of exactly that! Here is the link to one source that cites numerous other sources on this fascinating and emerging social science regarding the negative effects of social media.
I remember sitting in class with Tony Hoagland all the way back then – over 15 years ago now (sweet Jesus help me!!) and thinking that yes, he’s absolutely correct, my little flip phone and the incessant news media IS distracting me from my art and my larger interior awareness. Now fast forward to today and look at the technology at our fingertips and the colossal prescence of social media in our lives. What does this mean for us as artists and writers? I think personally it means quite a lot.
Recently as some of you may know I deactivated my own Facebook account. I was for some time a rather involved and active Facebook-er. And I was also complaining to myself and to loved ones how I wasn’t making any headway on my novel! I just wasn’t writing as much, and not only that I didn’t really know where to start either. Yikes! This is decidedly not good for me. So I did some soul dredging and came up with the cold hard truth – social media and Facebook in particular was distracting me from myself and my own larger dreams and goals. So I took the startling advice of Christ and plucked out mine own “I” and my selfsame Facebook. Now considering I was being faced with either living in eternal life with Christ albeit faceless or being damned forever in hellfire and brimstone but also plugged into my social media – well let’s just say I saw the writing on the wall, bit the bullet as it were, threw back a bottle of Jack Daniels, clamped my teeth down hard on a wooden stick, and cut off my very own face to spite my nose as the saying goes. And now I can say, being on the other side of those pearly gates, that although people don’t recognize me as easily any longer seeing as I am faceless and whatnot, I can testify and assert that I am indeed much happier. And way more productive as a writer too! So all in all it was a worthy venture that although did have its sacrifices and losses (I miss you dear friends I truly do! Let’s connect directly! Send me an email or contact me here through this site!), nevertheless the decision has already paid me back with large dividends, and so I am quite pleased and satisfied.
Now just as a side note for all you lovely readers of these musings out there, I am working on a new novel so unfortunately I have been rather absent from this site. My sincerest apologies to any of you for this oversight on my part. I have had limited time to devote to writing (even since becoming faceless) and so the time that I have found has been mostly devoted to tinkering with this new novel of mine. It is moving along but of course is a work in progress and shall take some considerable time as I do have a full time job, etc., etc. But I am quite happy and pleased with the subject matter, the characters involved, the larger themes and messages of the story. I very much look forward to being able to share it with you all in due time (the good Lord willing!!).
But let me not be so facetious for a moment. Removing ourselves from the hustle and bustle of life and a frenetic social environment in the name of an artist’s muse is nothing new. Van Gogh did just this when he left the free flowing absinthe of Paris and went down south to Arles to work more diligently (only to soon get involved in more prostitution and eventually cutting his own ear off but details, details – it was certainly the thought that counted). And all things considered, his transition out of the city and into the countryside did work wonders for him, his health, and his artistry. Van Gogh produced some of his greatest art then, and that time period marks a profound shift in his larger aesthetic and style which is very highly regarded.
The same was true for Thoreau and his masterful Walden Pond. Although he was only admittedly a few miles from town, Thoreau certainly removed himself from his “normal” daily lifestyle, for whatever that was worth considering how unusual his life already was, but nevertheless he did end up crafting one of the greatest literary masterpieces ever written.
In ancient times Boethius for example was a Roman senator and philosopher who was imprisoned and eventually executed by the Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great. During his imprisonment he wrote the Consolation of Philosophy which became hugely influential throughout the Middle Ages.
Speaking of imprisonment, lest I forget, Thoreau himself was jailed for refusing to pay taxes and it was through that solitary experience and removal from society that the powerful essay Civil Disobedience was inspired and written. That essay would go on to greatly influence such luminaries as Ghandi, Tolstoy, and Martin Luther King Jr. Here is one paragraph from that essay which describes his experience in jail and reveals just how committed and firm he was on these issues. Whether or not we ourselves see value in emulating his actions, it is certainly quite refreshing and awe-inspiring.
I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that it should have concluded at length that this was the best use it could put me to, and had never thought to avail itself of my services in some way. I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar. I felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax. They plainly did not know how to treat me, but behaved like persons who are underbred. In every threat and in every compliment there was a blunder; for they thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that stone wall. I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the door on my meditations, which followed them out again without let or hindrance, and they were really all that was dangerous. As they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body; just as boys, if they cannot come at some person against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog. I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not know its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and pitied it.
Finally just one more example, Thomas More wrote his famous piece Utopia while away on a diplomatic mission to Brussels regarding economic trade tariffs and an attempt to warm relations again with England. It was there while he was away from his normal “hustle and bustle” of life that he wrote much of this piece which interestingly enough is the first piece of literature to create another world as its setting and so is in fact the first fantasy or science fiction piece ever written.
Now of course all of these examples are not to say that my next work will be of such a caliber as any of these mentioned above (I could only be so blessed!!), but it is to say that as artists and writers we MUST get away, we MUST peel ourselves off from the crowd and be quiet, alone, even blank in order to truly create, to write, and most importantly to think and listen within. It is only through that interior process of meditation, contemplation, and even perhaps prayer that we can access the real wisdoms, the deeper stories within us, and the most germane and piercing observations to guide us through our art. Perhaps in this post-modern world, there are some writers and artists for whom social media helps them in those regards. I can’t rule it out as a matter of intellectual honesty. Maybe a new Whitman-like poet may find the song of the digital age, we just never know. Art and inspiration can certainly be found anywhere and in all places, but even with that being said, I must stress that there is nothing like being alone with one’s self. To be utterly isolated with yourself, your thoughts, your ideas, haunted by impressions you may not even yet realize until that moment of solitary rapture descends upon you. That is precious, vital gold for us as writers, and I suspect that no matter what age or time we find ourselves living in, they will always inspire and captivate our creativity and spark ever more genius to burst out into this world for all to see, hear, consider, and wrestle with.