Now that I'm coming to the end of my creative writing courses, I have choices to make. Do I write the novel I've always told myself I want to write? Or do I keep generating the poems and short stories that I've proven so good at? Or do I switch back to learning the piano and singing, with the eventual aim of being a singer-songwriter?
I could do some more OU courses in the Autumn/Winter: Arts Past and Present; Design thinking - creativity in the 21st Century; Understanding Music. I'm drawn to the structure of these, and the carrot of a degree in Literature and Music at the end. They are also stimulating (and expensive!).
But I also want to slow down and rest.
I picked up Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction from the library last week and I devoured it. I have been thinking about the meaning of literature and the other objects I see in culture (paintings, songs, theatre). Where do my stories and poems fit into the network of art that already exists? Do I want to keep on writing literature, or do I want to create in a different medium? Why do I want to create anything anyway?!
There were some wonderful new ways of looking at these questions in the book. I especially like the idea of 'theory' as being behind everything, linking cultural objects from across disciplines, so literature is explored in terms of psychoanalysis, paintings are thought of in terms of narrative, and so on. It made me see the futility of trying to get to the bottom of things, to try and master knowledge. There is no end to knowledge. To engage with questions of meaning is to set out on an infinite path.
Meaning is bound by context, but context is boundless :-) How liberating!
I have decided that as an artist (and in my definition a writer is an artist) I can express something from inside myself with skill and technique. If I do that, I am successful. I cannot control what other people will like. I won't choose my next project on anything other than personal fascination.
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