Tortures that the untalented must endure

I said something a few posts ago about how my writing feels like something I've vomited up and that I always find the writing process painful. That thought has been occurring to me more often lately. Maybe it comes with the increased number of entries to this blog. I begin to wonder if blog writing has become the poor-man's writing medium. Blogs are the electronic music and modern art of the writing world. It's a place where those who have the desire but are a little lacking in the talent area can spill out their rhetoric in an increasingly-appreciated platform. Instead of creating symphonies and Mona Lisas, we're scratching out house music on a synthesizer and throwing blobs of paint onto a canvas hoping something meaningful comes out of it. And to anyone who's starting to be insulted by this blog, please don't. I'm talking only about myself here.

And speaking of symphonies and art, let me side-track for a moment and say that I never really liked the Mona Lisa anyway. My interests tend, more often than not, to lean toward the more morbid. At the moment, I'm listening to Franz Schubert's "Death and the Maiden," which also happens to be the name of one of my favorite paintings. I'll only include the link since the painting isn't really G-rated. And it also isn't really a painting; I think it's technically an etching. But I digest... (Fans of Family Guy will get it.)

Back to the writing dilemma... I feel like Cristina from Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She says, "I feel like I have so much to express, but I'm not gifted." I think all English majors, deep down in their little hearts, feel the desire to be the next Faulkner, Morrison, or, if they're in it for the fame and not the prestige, Meyer. I mean, that's why we're English majors, right? We see the beauty in the words, we feel moved, and if we're lucky, we see the entire world change in the course of 50 pages. And then we want to be the one that causes the world to change. But what about those English majors who realize, miserably and after years of struggling, that they just aren't 'gifted'? Does it become a case of "those who can't do it, teach it"?



I'm not sure why this is becoming such an issue at the moment. Maybe I'm just bored. Actually, I think I know why. I've been reading what's turning into a really amazing book. I highly recommend it to anyone who, like me, leans toward the macabre or is just bored of reading the tripe that comes most often from modern American authors. (Oh, if you're in China and can't get ahold of a hard copy, I have the ebook and audio versions. Just email me and I'll send one to you!)

So that's the deal. I'm reading this amazingly eloquent and morose book and wishing I had the... I don't know what it is... words, talent, attention-span... to create something meaningful myself. But all I come up with is... this... A blog about blogging.