Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Shadows

The written word can be much more powerful than a physical personification of the same ideas.  How do I know this?

...Because you're reading my blog post.  Due to certain anxieties and fears, I don't often comment in class: And when I do, I find myself hoping, as the prophet Jacob did, that I do not "stumble because of my over anxiety." Unfortunately, still, I find my face flushed and my finesse flustered before I've finished my first sentence.  Yet in this written, digital forum, I can be entertaining- and, occasionally, insightful.  I can comment on another person's blog post without my heart beating as fast as a hummingbird's wings.  I can articulate my thoughts in a manner that accurately portrays them, and when it doesn't, I have the opportunity to revise them before I hit that "publish" button.

Does my inability to speak without preparation mean my thoughts are not my thoughts?  No- ask Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women), or Nell Harper Lee (the full-named author of To Kill a Mockingbird).  All of these women published their works under male pseudonyms in an effort to have their work respected and valued, and each succeeded in a way they never could have if their works had been presented as their own: Either orally or verbally.

Surely, a person with the ability to command his pen and pen his commands truly creates better ethos, but both speech and writing are merely mediums of conveying the essence of our souls: like artists, some are better with different mediums.

3 comments:

  1. Hm, very interesting perspective, I actually am the opposite. I feel my writing is not as powerful as my speaking ability. Cool references, This also reminds me of the Shadow of the Hegemon. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I definitely know the feeling! It is so hard for me to get up the courage to speak up- and then get tongue tied... but with writing, you have much more time to think and express. I will admit, however, that a problem with writing is that when you do mess up, it sticks for a while because people can continue to see it and attack it, whereas with speech, they may just forget it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I like your picture because I think it pretty accurately portrays how we do things these days. When people want to get something across or express their opinions, they just as often, if not more often, turn to their laptops and social media to do so.

    ReplyDelete