August 31, 2007 at 9:19 am (ideas, reading)
I buy a lot of books, sincerely meaning to read most of them. They range from fiction to philosophy, from self-help to real psychology, anthropology, physics, sociology, marketing, branding, advertising, religion, history, linguistics, literature, mythology, fairy-tales, magazines (yes, they are treated like books at home). All this lore added to high words.
Why should I read, think and write through all this instead of reaching nirvana through some simple zen experience like dark chocolate / tea/ not picking up the phone?
Won’t I just get lost, off my way to happiness – the way most western philosophers seem to have done (look forward to an entry on the western way of doing philosophy)?
I love reading and thinking and writing in my journal (and blogs) about all these in the most unsystematic way, but I do have a method in my madness: I let my heart / intuition lead me to the next book I will enjoy.
I plug into wisdom, no matter what I choose. I know Dalai Lama would say I should pick out one way and follow it, but … not my way. I do enjoy my infidelity to Buddhism or whatever path which seems to be The Path at a certain stage of my life. Not without my doubts, though
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And last (and I don’t care if least), I might be a Platonist or rather an Archetypist. I feel that if people have come up with all this, it’s part of human nature. If I ignore most of it, I ignore parts of my soul. And some day the ignored subatomic particles or stardust will loom and say “Boo!”
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August 31, 2007 at 9:18 am (writing)
I have just finished A. N. Wilson’s “Iris Murdoch as I knew her”, and I have written down several pages of unfamiliar words, would-like-to-refresh words, beautiful words. I have even looked some of them up in a dictionary and browsed through them a couple of times to revise.
Best-selling authors (like Dan Brown) write in simple English. I believe that nowadays the simpler the language, the better chances for the text to become a best-seller – more people will be able to read it and enjoy it in a fast and effortless way – the way they watch soap-like stuff on TV.
Then isn’t trying to master high English a waste?
I love beautiful difficult English (not Mobile Dick’s, of course!).
I would feel cool to be better at it. It will make me feel as important as someone who can change gear the classic way and does it in automatic America.
I would be happy if more people felt cool about studying it and using it. It will give them access to ideas and nuances of ideas, which would otherwise be inaccessible to them.
Look forward to my next entry, which might read like “Why should I have access to all ideas?”
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August 31, 2007 at 9:15 am (writing)
I want to be read by more people and earn money through writing. Here is why I would like to write in English. The problem is I don’t believe my English is very good. I often think that I should be able to write in a really sophisticated fresh-slang English in order to be a best-selling author.
Why should I?
Isn’t it more important to have something to say than to have nothing to say but be able to say it in high English?
Whenever I tell my son that he should practice his drawing skills, he says “But I do not have my own ideas for pictures.” Well, I do
. I have a message to the planet
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Do Iris Murdoch’s fans love reading her books because she writes in not-so-easy-to-read-fast English, or do they like her because she has something to say?
So, I am in! I am a writer. Don’t miss my next entry, which should read something like “Why should I learn how to write like Iris Murdoch?”
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