Why I Choose to Write and Share It Publicly
Why write, when generally it feels that so few people read—read as if their lives might be changed by what they are reading? Why write when it appears that the world wants to be informed, not enlighten? Why write when most people want to be entertained, not inspired? Why write in an age dominated by moving pictures and fleeting content?
A picture may tell a thousand words, but a single second of online video—comprising 30 frames—can be equivalent to 30,000 words. A 30-second of online video? That's 900,000 words. How can a writer compete?
The first set of questions (excluding the one about videos) comes from Mark Edmundson’s book “Why Write?”. The book starts out with compelling reasons not to write. Writing is a back-breaking, mind-breaking, lonely endeavour, and we're living in a time where not many people are reading deliberately, savouring every word slowly, so why bother, right?
In the book, Edmundson gives 4 nefarious reasons why writers write, money, fame, love, and revenge. This for strong motivations can also be applied to any form of online content creation these days.
Writing for money. This is probably the strongest motivation for most people. Money is the reason most people do what they do. It becomes nefarious when people do this, disregarding any moral obligations, disregarding any form of self-worth and dignity.
Writing for fame. Sometimes money is not a strong enough motivation. They want to go viral, and be famous. People recognise them wherever they go, in the hope that they will be treated differently. So that they can constantly be the main character, or at least feel like they constantly are the main character.
Writing to find love. They want to get the girl, or to get that guy. This applies to social media content the most. There is a reason why she posts those revealing photos of her, and he posts his post workout photos on Instagram. I am willing to bet that the reasons are to attract that special someone. That special someone with the hope of having a romantic (or perhaps just erotic) encounter with.
Writing to get revenge. What would be more motivating than revenge? To get even with that someone who had wronged you in some way. To put him or her in their place, with sharp, pointed words that could pierce through their soul. Stick and stones will break their bones, but words, they break their soul, crush their ego. Words can hurt, and it hurts more than stick and stone. Write to defame, to ridicule, to cancel them, we see this all the time.
I checked myself with my intentions for wanting to write, and I pray that I am sincere enough to avoid these four reasons. Although I have to admit, in the past, the young, naive, and hot-headed me had used these 4 reasons as strong motivations.
George Orwell, in his essay, “Why I Write”, mentioned 4 reasons that motivated him to write. They are less nefarious reasons. He said, putting aside the need to make a living, i.e., to make money, these are 4 reasons why writers write:
Sheer egoism. To seem clever to others, to be talked about, to be remembered after death. While on the surface it seems similar to “writing for fame” mentioned earlier, but on a deeper level, this is different. Here I can sense the desire to have mattered, to have made a difference, and to be recognised for that. It is different from simply being famous.
Aesthetic enthusiasm. To create beauty in words and the arrangement of words. Humans are naturally attracted to beauty, and not only that we like seeing beautiful things, we take pleasure in producing beautiful things. Words and their arrangements can be something beautiful. Something that touches the soul.
Historical impulse. The desire to see things as they are, to find out facts and to write them down for posterity. If this is the sole motivation for you to write what you are writing, what a noble endeavour you have embarked on. I salute you, writer who tells the truth.
Political purpose. The desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people’s idea of the kind of society they should strive after. I believe everyone starts with good intentions. Then again, they say, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”. Marx, Foucault, Descartes, Lenin, just to name a few. Books are just mediums to transmit ideas, some ideas can change the world, or part of the world. For the better or worst, I’ll leave it to you to judge.
I could go on and read about other writers and what are the reasons that motivate them to write what they wrote, but I have to find my reasons.
Edmundson had given a few more other not so nefarious reasons to write, and some of them do resonate with me. Among them are writing to strengthen the mind, and writing to grow the soul.
The mind is a muscle. Reading is its diet, writing is its exercise. A healthy diet and regular exercise will make it grow strong and healthy. “I never know what I think until I hear what I say”, I am sure this is relatable to most of us, for me particularly, “I never know what I think until I re-read what I wrote.”
I think our brain needs to operate in two modes, logical thinking mode and rhetorical thinking mode, for us to function well in society.
When we problem-solve, we are doing logical thinking. We think through the steps, determine what works and what doesn’t, we try to connect the dots, and so on. But before that, we need to know what exactly the problem is, and to know that we have to be able to express the problem to ourselves and to others. Once we have done some problem-solving logical thinking and found the solutions, we have to be able to explain the solution to others, best if we can do it eloquently. This is where rhetorical thinking is needed. “Rhetoric”, is the art of persuasion. It encompasses the principles and techniques for effective communication, particularly in public speaking and writing.
Interestingly, “Logic” and “Rhetoric” are 2 of the 7 classical liberal arts subjects. The word “art” here in “classical liberal art” has a closer meaning to “skill” than to say “fine art”. For example, when we mention “Sun Zhu, The Art of War” we do not mean a painting of war by Sun Zhu.
In terms of classical liberal arts, both “Logic” and “Rhetoric”, together with the “Grammar” formed the Trivium, the first foundational part of the classical liberal arts education. Medieval scholars and knowledge seekers of ancient times are often required to master these 3 before moving on to the Quadrivium subjects, which are, Arithmetic—the study of numbers, Geometry—the study of space and form, Music—The study of harmony and proportion, and Astronomy—the study of celestial bodies and the cosmos.
The study of 'Logic', 'Rhetoric', and 'Grammar' became a formal educational framework during the Middle Ages, but it can actually be traced back to ancient Greek and Roman times. These 3 arts are also being emphasised in the Islamic tradition in knowledge, especially during the Islamic Golden Age. “Nahw” (Grammar) — the study of structure of sentences, “Balagha” (Rhetoric) — the art of eloquence and effective communication in speech and writing, and “Mantiq” (Logic) — the study of reasoning. All these are deemed essential for the intellectual and scholarly pursuits of Muslim scholars for understanding the Quran and Hadith.
Clearly, I am very much interested in this subject, I can talk plenty more about this, but I do not want this essay to be about the Trivium. What I am trying to get at is that, rhetorical thinking is as important as logical thinking, and in fact, I think it goes hand in hand. Writing (and perhaps public speaking) helps train the rhetoric mind.
One other motivation that most writers have that I can resonate with is to tell the truth, or at the very least try to tell the truth. To be honest to yourself about the things that you do know, and the things that you don’t. To see things as it is, and to tell it as it is. I’ve alluded to this in my other published short essays — “What is Next for jshamsul.com”.
So, back to the originally questions that I started this essay with, why write when most people only want to be informed and not enlightened? Why write when most people only want to be entertained and not inspired? Perhaps we these days no longer write to enlighten, we write only to inform, to bring the readers up-to-date. Perhaps we these days no longer write to inspire, we write to entertain, for giggles and passing trend.
So here is my attempt to enlighten and inspire. My attempt to sharpen my rhetorical mind. My attempt to tell it as it is, to tell the truth. I am calling these essays and not blogposts, as another meaning for essay, is “attempt”.
(I introduced some changes to this essay, you can read the original in the commit log.)
