Saturday, March 15, 2008

Mines and yours

Jason exploits some of his own childhood experience while coming with a cutting edge psychological piece. It takes the form of a dialogue. It starts with simple questions only to reveal the disturbing truth beneath a shiny surface.
Events of childhood, as he puts it in his comment in response to my comment, can lead to stress in adulthood.
Traumas are almost always excellent sources of writing. To me, they are golden mines. If I am the one who went through some suffering, my writing about it helps me in the first place. And if my personal hell somehow matches the reader's own, then my writing might be of some help for him as well. Double the advantage.
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When I read about personal sufferings that were not part of my life though I am either
1 - bored, because the stuff has no relevance to my life at all.
2- releaved and loose, because I thank Heavens for not letting me having to experience such horrors.
It's so good to see that what is yours is not mine.
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At the same time, opportunity is always there. What was/is yours can be mine. So it's better to be aware.
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I like psychological writings. I think Halo somehow will be psychological, too. Provided I'm writing it.... At the moment I'm not.
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What's your take on mines and yours?

13 comments:

Unknown said...

I think I would rather not be a writer and have a peaceful childhood than having bad experiences in childhood and being a writer. If I was a writer I would use histry as my "gold mine".

SzélsőFa said...

That is a good point Ropi.
Our history, our experience is always a great source of information when writing.

Also, I assume every great writer with a horrible childhood would trade his fame for happiness.
I mean he would rather choose un-fame with a happy past over being famous with bad experiences.

Charles Gramlich said...

Several times I've written about something that I haven't experienced, and years later after I've had the experience I go back and see how wrong I got it. Experience is a wonderful teacher. But oftentimes cruel.

SzélsőFa said...

Charles,

that must have felt awful back then...
Did you have the chance to re-write it?

Unknown said...

your name is not on the list because I am sure you aren't called Szélsőfa. Should I have written that: Szélsőfa: tree which is not in the middle of the forest?:P

WH said...

Conciously or unconsciously, I think past experiences affect our writing in some way, shape, or form. My personal preference, however, is not to deal with childhood traumas or an evil ex-wife. A vivid imagination is good enough for me, although I totally respect everyone who writes explicitly based on experience.

SzélsőFa said...

Ropi,

that would have looked fun that way :)))


Billy,

I think our experiences influence us, form our personality, imprint something into our ... soul? - so I think our experiences are always with us. I suppose they are there even when you write, perhaps, at a restricted, subconscious level.

SzélsőFa said...

Billy,

having re-read your comment again, I see that I have not responded quite correctly. I'm sorry for that...

I think some really great traumas are very difficult to handle, and perhaps are better left untouched.
When time is ripe, they will come forward.

Miladysa said...

I think there are some experiences that most of us can empathise with, the loss of a loved one etc. I am OK reading about these things.

When it comes to true experiences of cruelty/neglect/horror/murder etc. I avoid them like the plague.

Bernita said...

I favour Billy's approach.

SzélsőFa said...

Miladysa,

you're right: I also tend to refrain from reading nasty stories. I acknowledge that writing them might have been helpful to the one who write it, but it might as well be unnecessary painful for me to read.

Bernita,

thank you for your opinion.
I also think that not everything a writer experiences should be written.

Unknown said...

Yeah but history is a difficult to write about IF you want to avoid scandals. For example our tension on the Hungarians' origin. You won't kill me because my opinion but there are less patient people than you and tougher tensions. I hope you understand what I mean.

SzélsőFa said...

Ropi,

I think I understand.
I never was the rebellious type myself, I always avoided conflicts.

Now as I'm getting older, I think I can just stand up for what I believe to be true.
It is a matter of fine balance to say out your beliefs AND not to hurt people at the same time.