Monday, June 15, 2020

A Bacchanalian Blog

Since this is a blog without readers, I do not have to pander to the tastes of a specific audience or worst of all, having to state my stand on current issues. This gives me a lot of leeway to experiment and have fun. Having said that, I also do not want to be too self-indulgent here because the purpose of this blog is to allow me to express my thoughts clearly, and adhering to some basic principles of good writing, so that whatever message that I am conveying, gets through to you, the absent reader.

I've mentioned elsewhere before that writing helps me to think. Writing a blog article is a bit like solving a mathematical problem: you have to start with some basic premises, and then apply some step-by-step logical reasoning to advance towards a final conclusion. You build your argument sentence by sentence, using all the meaning and imagery that words are able to convey. Words are magic: the moment these black marks hit your vision, movies start running in your head. The miracle of writing and reading is that, even though each of us will watch a slightly different movie, we'll immediately see what the writer has in his mind. Good writing resonates with the reader, evoking the multi-various experiences that we as humans share.

The last two paragraphs will bore a lot of readers. If I continue in this vein, you'll soon be skimming through my sentences and start clicking on the next link. But I am the only reader here, so I don't have to care too much. My blog is where I doodle with words.

Shorter sentences are always easier to read. Like this one. To write is to choose words. Words with single syllables have a lot of power: I was hurt: my wound was deep and and I bled. Don't you feel the pain in those words? Don't they stab you like sharp knives?

Yes, you can kill with words. Short and sharp words hurt the most: If you don't like what you read, fuck off.

But words can also heal: dawn is breaking and the first shafts of sunlight falls on your face, caressing you with its warmth and freshness, bringing the promise of a new day and a new beginning. You rejoice for life is a wonderful miracle that is renewed each day. You beam with gratitude for all the blessings that have brought you thus far. You rise, eager to fill your days with the sweetness of flowers, food and music--all the good things that life has to offer: the company of loved ones and friends and of course, the pleasure of books. Ah, to be able to read words and be touched by them.

And when you write, words emerge, flowing like rivers of ink from the tip of your pen, like magical apparitions, conjured on your computer screen. You, the writer, the reader, are co-creating this miracle, this celebration of letters, this ecstasy of expression, this drunken dialectic of words, this unabashed bacchanalia of a blog.