Monday, March 30, 2009

Writing and Spirituality

So said the title of James River Writers Writing Show the other night, or something along those lines anyway.  On a dreary rainy night in the new Writing Show digs of the Childrens Museum. 
The Show wasn't exactly what I expected but I did take a few notes.  Interestingly they were mostly along the lines of thoughts that popped into my head about what the panelists were saying, rather than what the panelists were actually saying.  So it was definitely different than the notes I am usually jotting down.

One thing that was very interesting was a 'question' posed by an audience member [that's never really a question].  The person seemed to be very upset that people that had critiqued the book written by this person weren't seeing the same things in it that were part of this person's experience and what they intended/meant when they wrote it.  That they just didn't get it!
One of the panelists said they thought that everyone should be able to get what they need to out of our writing.

So what do you think?   

Do we write of our own experiences to only say what needs to be said, or is it more encompassing than that, and that as our lives and experiences are different so will be our reading preferences and experiences, and we interpret accordingly?

2 comments:

KathArine said...

You can't help coming at something from your own point of view and bringing your own life experience to it. If you're going to write something spiritual, then I think you have to let it loose to say what it's going to say and be interpreted how it gets interpreted. That said, after you get those critiques, you can go back and try to say what you meant more clearly so there's less room for interpretation. But I think any art form and its artist are going to have to deal with interpretation by the public.

sgchris said...

You're right we can't help but bring our own p.o.v. and life experience to all we see, and everyone interprets accordingly. And while I agree on that I think people are going to interpret the way they want no matter how clearly we try to say what our experience /view really is.
As someone 'close' to me continually reminds me, we can't control that, only our reaction to them. ;)
And as long as someone is willing to pay the money for the art they can interpret how they want??? [as long as they pay enough? ;) ;)