Thread replies: 6
Thread images: 1
Thread images: 1
File: mastering-time.jpg (328KB, 1600x1349px) Image search:
[Google]
328KB, 1600x1349px
Hi /lit/,
recently I lost a text on which I had worked. I proceeded to rewrite it (better) and saved copies on cloud, my computer, and an USB key. The next day, when I wanted to re-read it, I realized it was gone from my computer, the cloud and my USB key. I have no rationnal explanation for this phenomenon but it got me thinking about the absurdity of trying to create something lasting in a perpetually changing world (in the buddhist sense of the phrase).
So, I wanna have a debate and read your opinions.
What is the purpose of writing (not communication based writing or any kind of direct, ephemeral writing, but a writing meant to last and transcend time) in the context of a world where all material structures are ephemeral? Is it an absurdity to try and create something that lasts, in a world where everything is constantly being transformed, destroyed and recreated?
The bouddhists say that the happiest writer is the one that never wrote anything at all.
I'm gonna take a break from writing and re-evaluate the purpose of such an action, but I would like to have your thoughts on this subject.
Will give mines, too.
>>
4chan threads stay archived on desustorage forever
>>
My thoughts are that trying to create a lasting medium in a fleeting world implies an inherent trust in the world and others, and maybe a need for it, too.
What I mean by that is that the very building of the kind of society that we have in the modern world rests upon the trust that others will continue your work and that, togeter, you can defeat the fatality of time or, to use a phrase from pink floyd, to "catch up with the sun".
However, to what extent is our action a choice? Certainly, we need this structure raised against time, as we could not live without it in our current society. Tribal societies are different. They transmit a form of knowledge and have such a relation with the world that they hardly need man-made pseudo-eternal structures.
Nothing ever written will last forever, nor should it. It will be destroyed and eventually forgotten, inevitably. So, what is the purpose of pseudo-eternal writing? Necessarily, it has a rather immediate purpose. To make money, express an emotion, communicate a thought, or even simply be a reminder of a certain thing.
It can also be used to create a certain experience and shape reality.
However, I beleive that in order to be independent and therefore free, writing should never be a need. To need a pseudo-eternal structure is absurd. To use one can be coherent.
I don't want to be a writer. I may write, but I will never, ever, consider myself a writer and I will try my best to write, if I want to, but never to need to.
>>
>>9043848
I thought about that. I could potentially use that in the future but, as I said, I'm taking a break from writing in a lasting purpose for some time.
>>
>>9043856
this will be archived so your using it now lul
>>
>>9043807
I suppose it is for later generations to keep a tab on what mattered before them. All ideas eventually go stale and everyone is going to die so any lasting effects of them disappear. Writing meant to last doesn't last. The best reason to write them is for oneself.
Thread posts: 6
Thread images: 1
Thread images: 1