Breaking through

Many attempts were made to write this post and all given up because they were becoming too unwieldy to write.I am still holding on to the hope that the regular readers ( if there are any left by now) have not given up on me.It has been a tumultuous first year at B-school,mostly down than up and I have come to loath as well as love MDI in equal measure.It continues to amaze as well as frustrate me at the same time.I have come to discover a lot many things about myself which has been quite an unsettling experience to say the least.

The only significant takeaway is some clarity when it comes to career direction.I have decided after much wrestling with various options and arrangements that writing will be a significant of the future me.I am willing to give it the energy and time it demands.The form,content and methodology will come later but I finally decided that it was about time that I narrowed my options in order to give some much wanted direction to my life.I have been inspired by the following ( celebrated) interview of Faulkner ( pictured above) in The Paris Review:

INTERVIEWER

You mentioned economic freedom. Does the writer need it?

FAULKNER

No. The writer doesn't need economic freedom. All he needs is a pencil and some paper. I've never known anything good in writing to come from having accepted any free gift of money. The good writer never applies to a foundation. He's too busy writing something. If he isn't first rate he fools himself by saying he hasn't got time or economic freedom. Good art can come out of thieves, bootleggers, or horse swipes. People really are afraid to find out just how much hardship and poverty they can stand. They are afraid to find out how tough they are. Nothing can destroy the good writer. The only thing that can alter the good writer is death. Good ones don't have time to bother with success or getting rich.

INTERVIEWER

Can working for the movies hurt your own writing?

FAULKNER

Nothing can injure a man's writing if he's a first-rate writer. If a man is not a first-rate writer, there's not anything can help it much. The problem does not apply if he is not first rate because he has already sold his soul for a swimming pool.

INTERVIEWER

Some people say they can't understand your writing, even after they read it two or three times. What approach would you suggest for them?

FAULKNER

Read it four times.

INTERVIEWER

You mentioned experience, observation, and imagination as being important for the writer. Would you include inspiration?

FAULKNER

I don't know anything about inspiration because I don't know what inspiration is—I've heard about it, but I never saw it.

INTERVIEWER

As a writer you are said to be obsessed with violence.

FAULKNER

That's like saying the carpenter is obsessed with his hammer. Violence is simply one of the carpenter's tools. The writer can no more build with one tool than the carpenter can.

NTERVIEWER

What were the kinds of work you were doing to earn that “little money now and then”?

FAULKNER

Whatever came up. I could do a little of almost anything—run boats, paint houses, fly airplanes. I never needed much money because living was cheap in New Orleans then, and all I wanted was a place to sleep, a little food, tobacco, and whiskey. There were many things I could do for two or three days and earn enough money to live on for the rest of the month. By temperament I'm a vagabond and a tramp. I don't want money badly enough to work for it. In my opinion it's a shame that there is so much work in the world. One of the saddest things is that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day, day after day, is work. You can't eat eight hours a day nor drink for eight hours a day nor make love for eight hours—all you can do for eight hours is work. Which is the reason why man makes himself and everybody else so miserable and unhappy.

More on this later.

PS: A personal favourite when it comes to lifting one out of a sombre mood,the Paris Review interviews is all that one needs to 're-ignite the literary fire'.The interviews become available for browsing once a certain period of time has elapsed since the publication of that particular issue.The Franzen interview can be found here