Opinion | Columnists
Wired for leisure
Many prolific writers, when writing about writing, insist that writer's block is self-indulgence bordering on moral laxity. The secret for many of them is to get to that desk and spend the day there - no matter what.
- By Gautam Raja, Special to Gulf News
- Published: 23:43 November 4, 2008
Many prolific writers, when writing about writing, insist that writer's block is self-indulgence bordering on moral laxity. The secret for many of them is to get to that desk and spend the day there - no matter what.
Until fairly recently, the desk would have paper and sharpened pencils, or a typewriter, or a green-screened computer. If instead, all those tables had had multimedia laptops connected to the internet via a broadband connection, I dare say our literary canon would be several libraries' worth smaller than it is today.
It is, I am fast deciding, folly to try and work on one of these machines - a seemingly good deal of the sort Dr Faustus would see through instantly. What worth are the riches of the world when you've sold your soul to the devil? But then, how did our brains ever take the strain of having unidentifiable songs stuck in our heads for days on end?
When I worked at a newspaper, and was wired to QuarkXPress for eight hours a day, six days a week, I noticed a rather worrying phenomenon. I started to assume real life had a Ctrl-Z, or undo, feature. I would pull a set of papers out of a tight envelope, knowing they would be hard to put back, but somehow felt I could just hit Ctrl-Z and they'd all go back. I would spill something and quickly get over the initial dismay, my left thumb and forefinger twitching to make it all okay again.
Nowadays, my brain has started assuming that it has direct access to Google. I could be biking in the wilderness, miles from anywhere, I'll remember a song but forget the band, and then think, "Hang on, let me check on Google." And then I'll wait for the answer, before realising I'm about to fall off a hill and snapping back to reality.
While at the computer and writing, if there's a fact that needs to be checked, I won't wait until I finish even the sentence, let alone the paragraph or the article. Off I am to Google, then Wikipedia... "But hang on, Wikipedia isn't always reliable, double check it somewhere else, oh look an interesting article, a related video, oh look YouTube's 'most watched' has a crashing skateboarder..." and it all goes downhill from there.
The rest of the afternoon is spent watching people trying to kill themselves with stoppies on sportsbikes, or with contraptions made from Mentos and cola. Guilt is alleviated by keeping the article open, cursor flashing and ready. I'm always on the verge of getting back to work, for hours on end.
After a few days... okay weeks, I decided that this was getting out of hand, and started switching off the modem after breakfast, with strict self-issued instructions to keep it off until lunch. Then one day I remembered an important e-mail I had to send and broke the rule. Like the tiny crack that brings down an aeroplane, that one e-mail became a blog update, a Facebook check, a forum post, another Facebook check, a... you know the plot.
These days I'm seriously considering handing my wife the modem's power adaptor when she goes to work, for her to bring back only in the evening. A few years ago, you'd have thought, "What a weak person. Where's his self-discipline?"
Today, you'd nod your head and smile, but only if you were still reading and not on YouTube, as you are now, checking if there are any new movements (fizzy neo-realism perhaps?) in the Mentos-and-cola film genre.
Gautam Raja is a journalist based in the US.
More from Columnists
More from Opinions
Opinion Editor's choice
-
Egyptians must reject foreign meddling
By Tariq Ramadan, Special to Gulf News
Presidential election may turn out to be less a new chapter in a democratic future than an old chapter complete with a stage-managed outcome
-
Moderates may gift Egypt to Islamists
By Linda S. Heard, Special to Gulf News
Liberals cannot afford to sit at home or in cafes watching queues lengthen outside polling stations. They must quit complaining and vote with their feet
-
Is Al Maliki serious about democracy and more words?
By Mohammad Akef Jamal, Special to Gulf News
He is pushing towards a military showdown with the Kurds at a time when they are stronger than ever before
Your turn
