[inglor]

I watched a biography of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) yesterday . They were narrating some of his journals and what struck me was the writing. Everything the man wrote, even his journals, brought such concise and specific visuals. Every emotion and description was crystal clear. Now I know he was one of the greatest of American writers but if you have read or heard letters from that time period, it seems that we no longer have the ability to say so much with so little. Even listening to letters from privates in armies seem like master works compared to what we read today.

Is writing a lost art? Or have we moved on to other mediums in its place?

Or do I just need to read more?

Inglor

[Yavanie]

OH definitely the writing is lost.

My great grandfather was a presbyterian minister and before that he taught at a sort of finishing school (where he met his wife, one of his students). His handwritten sermons are a joy to read, the descriptions and word choices, of course the immaculate and intricate handwriting can be difficult to decipher though.

We also have a small collection of the letters between them as they corresponded for SIX years before getting married. He came to Texas to establish a church and she remained with her family in North Carolina until he sent for her. Only a few remain but even simply talking about everyday things they paid attention to word choice (I think they just had more diverse vocabularies).

Some argument can be made that some of that the art of writing has been translated into other mediums, music and movies and the like, but those works had to get a great deal of their inspiration from somewhere, generally written works.

No not everyone is Mark Twain, but much of the delight of his stories rests in his attention of creating a scene and capturing a personality - in simple terms even.

I can tell you that the art of writing (handwriting and descriptive) is not given a lot of attention in public schools here in America. I mean, after all, it is much more important to make sure the kids can pass standardized tests and tolerate a wide range of politically correct stances so we can demonstrate and quantify the superiority of our educational system. Forget encouraging creativity or - gasp - personal expression. (okay off my soapbox now).

[NancyBrooke]

I agree, that the art of writing letters is lost; as a culture we no longer rely on the writen word as a primary form of communication. As art, yes; as communication - no. Have you heard of "the Legacy Project?" (http://www.warletters.com/mission/index.html) It is an effort to collect as many letters written during war time (any war, any side) as possible. I've heard some of them read. Once upon a time even Joe Schmoe serving in France in 1914 was capable of some extraordinarily moving writing.

So many things have come along to erode that - phones, computers, office memos, advertising - all those things that stress immediacy and brevity before precision and language.

But, where reading is concerned I wonder if some of it isn't fashion, also. I mean, we, as the reading public, embrace a great many more styles and nationalities than we used to, and books have become a commodity rather than an 'art form'. But there are still some amazing writers out there, folks who seem to sweat every word; I'm thinking of Margaret Atwood specifically. It's out there, just not always easy to find.

[Neniel]

Things have definitely changed in our days. The vast development of other media has placed writing far behind in an average person's priorities. Children are raised primarily with optical stimuli; why bother read a book when watching the TV can be so much easier? During those few precious years when a person's orientation is determined through their education and childhood experiences in general, actual writing is reserved merely for school assignments and that alone is enough to turn it into a chore rather than a creative way of expression. How many teenagers you know would give up their favorite TV show to sit down and read a good book? And how many more do you think would bother take the time and track down the exactly right words whenever they do bother to write about something?

I say this because I have noticed it first and foremost in my own self. Despite having devoured tons and tons of books since my early childhood, a fact that most of my friends considered an interesting 'quirk' at the best of times, I think mostly with images. Finding the exact words to describe what I'm thinking of is more of a hindrance than an enjoyable pastime.

But then again, we should not underestimate the faxt that more and more people today have access to the sort of education that would allow them to appreciate such things. People may have been more elegant writers in the past, but not all had the necessary schooling to explore this trait. Part of the fact that every day and age has it strengths and weaknesses I suppose...

[Rhapsody]

Just a curious question then.... Am I the only one who most of the times write a story on paper before I type it in word? I have so many notebooks with idea's, chapters written and so on...

[SpaceWeavil]

[ellisk]

[ellisk]

[Neniel]

[NeumeIndil]

(Laughs at herself) I wish I had the forethought to keep "a notebook". If an idea hits, I write it down somewhere, but that might be a notebook, a paper napkin, the back of my hand, my work jeans, the margins of a text book or the shower wall with soap. My desk looks like a sticky-note factory exploded. I research in notebooks but for drafting I work on my PC just b/c I type faster than I write and it's easier to fiddle with word choice and phrasing electronically. I've noticed, though, that I write poetry by hand, and I get very strongly bound to the image and the literal nature of the subject, like Neni, fighting to evoke what I see in my head

By the way, I'm loving this thread. You've reminded me to keep an eye on the "art" in my writing, not just cannon accuracy or fulfilling the assignment. I'm with Ya on the idea of schools and the push for meeting standards to be at least partially to blame. They seem to think now that writing is a tool and only a tool and undervalue the art inherent to the fiction writing process. I always wrote for fun, as early as first and second grade (yes, I was the strange girl in the back of the room), but luckily a few of my teachers saw and appreciated the talent I had and helped me expand it rather than whittling me down to the bare bones technical crap the average high schooler in the U.S. gets by on.

My profs. now say that good readers make good writers, and they mean it in a number of ways. The fundamental one is that you learn how to craft words, the "art" of writing, by reading what's been done before and finding what worked well. In the world of commercial fiction, mimicry is more likely to sell, so that's what is encouraged. I think the old writers were so articulate and rich because their motives were different. They weren't writing to see if they could out-sell Grisham; they were writing to tell a good story or discuss social problems and injustices or because they simply couldn't not write. For the talented, it's easy to sell out and for those with a talent for parroting the genuinely talented, it's even easier. Twain, Shelley, Lovecraft, Wordsworth, heck even H.D. Thoreau, weren't necessarily out to create 'art' or make money. I would hope they were trying to tell a good story, to make people feel and think, and that, I think, is what the literary field has lost in the past fifty or so years. It's less a matter of art and more a matter of heart.

(Puts her hand down and prepares to be laughed at.)

Neu

[inglor]

Very well said, much better than I could have.

RE: writing in school:

When I was in College we were told the biggest problem employers had with new graduates, not just from forestry but from all degrees, was... the inablility to communicate... Therefore 2 semesters of Technical writing was required. In an effort to pass standards, our schools are unqualifiing our kids for life.

Reading, Writing, 'Rithmetic have been replaced with Stanford Achievement Test

[Cressida]

[SpaceWeavil]

[NancyBrooke]

From my perspective (Small-Liberal Arts-College-Educated-English-Major) I wonder if some of the fault isn't with reading, as well. As was cited above, kids don't read so much anymore. That's part of the reason Harry Potter has been such a sensation - kids were reading! After I had graduated I went back to college and sat in on a freshman english class. I wanted so much to stand behind the professor and say "Look! Here, Here and Here - that's all he's going to teach you over and over again for the next four years!" And that was to read the text, understand the text, find the moment(s) in the text that speak to you and be able to communicate why that is. Text Text Text. If you couldn't read it, you couldn't write about it.

I also want to give a shout out, as it were, to songwriters. Some of the best writing I've come across recently has been in song, Elvis Costello in particular, but I also remember being just slayed by Cheryl Wheeler as she sang "Life is short, but the days and nights are long" (I think that line is just perfect, poignant, universal, and brief) or John Prine, famously: "How the hell can a person go to work in the morning, come home every evening, and have nothing to say" and "If dreams were thunder, and lightning was desire, this house would have burnt down a long time ago."

That's the stuff drabbles are made of.

[Yavanie]