@thomasknoll

Kill off the Writers




Kill off the Writers

Originally uploaded by dydimustk

The other day I was hanging out with my friend JulieVW and she shared this thought:

If you want to control a revolution, kill off the writers.

(Unless I hear differently, I’m going to attribute this thought to her.)

FWIW, I *do* stand with the writers strike, and believe they deserve to be better compensated for their craft. That said, I don’t believe many of them are writing anything revolutionary. Rather, I’m afraid we don’t have any revolutions right now, because our (the Big Our) writers have died off.

What does this mean?

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3 responses to “Kill off the Writers”

  1. Anna Avatar
    Anna

    It means we have to write our own revolution.

    Reply
  2. Rick Mahn Avatar
    Rick Mahn

    Thomas, I think it means that our definition of writers needs to be updated. While we may not have many (any?) real thinking writers putting pen to paper of late – there sure are many online. Look at the people who write the content that shows up in your feeds. Look at Twitter. I find thinking writers all over the place here on the intertubes, but seldom in the MSM.

    Regards,
    Rick

    Reply
  3. JulieVW Avatar
    JulieVW

    While I love having a profound thought attributed to me – the credit for that line of thought actually belongs to Madeleine L’Engle; what I said was a poor paraphrase of her much more eloquent quote . . .

    When Hugh and I went on a trip to Russia I almost didn’t get a visa because our travel agent put down my occupation as writer.Writers think. Writers ask questions. Writers are dangerous. She finally persuaded ‘them’ that I write only for very small children and was not a threat. In any dictatorship, writers are among the first to be imprisoned, and vocabulary is quickly diminished and language deteriorates. Writers, if their vocabulary is not leashed, are quick to see injustice, and rose the people to do something about it. We need wwords with which to thin; kill words and we won’t be able to think and we’ll be easier to manipulate.

    (From the Irrational Season pg. 164).

    Reply

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