I know I haven't written in a while but finally, I had the time to give this blog some attention. So here it goes.
Simplicity. It’s beautiful. It was something many of my writing mentors and lecturers thumped into my head. Ms. Levitz used to say, “Don’t write as if to say ‘look mom, no hands.’” We wouldn’t want our readers to feels as if they were reading a science journal, with complex jargon and high English terms that has its roots in the Latin. My editor Jenny Tennant at Big Media always told us to leave the Latin words aside and stick to the simple English words. By this she meant to prevent using words that had three or more syllables . It was something she learnt from George Orwell.
And since Big Media mainly dealt with politics, bureaucratic speech was a huge no-no. It was something the journalists had to work around. Reduce the politicians’ message from 1500 words to 300 words.
Pat Hopkins would drink eight triple Jamesons if he saw any complex words in our fictional stories. “I would chuck the book out if I had to run to the dictionary every few paragraphs,” he would say.
However, I learned simplicity is not exclusive to writing, but to most aspects in this life. I applied it to football to great effect. I pass more, create more and therefore, celebrate a lot more because of simplicity. When facing a problem, it is sometimes easier to approach it with few simple effective options instead of numerous complex, analytical ones.
I know from my tabla lessons, great music is made when we get the simple things right.
The most memorable movies and even famous paintings have kept to the principle of simplicity. If we had lived our lives in such a way wouldn’t there be fewer quarrels with those we love? I mean, sometimes we turn a simple issue into such a big thing that when we do quarrel we forget what we actually arguing about. The same thing goes for war. By living simply wouldn’t we be able to express ourselves more?
There are certain feelings that are so simple they don’t even need words to describe it. Just silence and actions will do. Which is why we can’t put words to love. But trying to look for the words already complicates the feeling because love cannot rise above its own simplicity. That’s why love is beautiful because it’s so simple.
The arts try to explain love, but don’t do it in words, but in the actions of its characters.
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I’ve been reading the book Primary Colors (spelt without the “u” because it’s in American English). According to its subtitle it’s a novel of politics. There was even a movie based on it, starring dimple chinned John Travolta. However, the most intriguing thing about the book was that it was written by someone who wanted to remain anonymous. When I started reading it, I realised why this person chose to remain unnamed. American politics is dirty. During the primary elections, the Democrats play each other down, look for dirt from the past of their fellow contenders and use it against them. It just happened so I read this book during the dawn of the real primary elections that were held recently which Barack won. And the funny thing is, the pattern in the real primary I was following was the same as the fictional one I was reading. Despicable tactics are used gain the upper hand. It’s not about the people, but about winning at all costs, even if your dignity is lost and your image is dented. These tactics, according to the book is called “oppo”, which means digging up the dirt on your opponents to use it against them. It was used by the ancient Greek diplomats. But the real thinking is done by the staff behind these politicians. They’re the ones who are doing all the digging and burying, all the dustbusting and ball-licking. And they’re good at it.
Once again I go back to my favourite comic man Alan Moore. Politics, economies, all these things were created by the imagination of the minds of men. They’re intangible. Yet we erect massive buildings to give these intangible entities a home, or some character, or even a body. But in that body, there is no soul. To Moore, these social structures such as economics, politics, religion, are all illusions. These make believe things are all unnatural to anything that is human. Do our brains, bodies and emotions have the capacity to keep up with all of this. Some would say yes. But perhaps as an individual we wouldn’t, but as a group we could. We would need each other to survive these leviathans, which is why politics and economics thrive if it is approached collectively. I would think, and Sigmund Freud might agree with me here, these illusions were created to keep society in check, to prevent them from either empowering themselves or turning towards their animalistic selves. Perhaps it was to create orderly compartments in our minds and prevent it from going haywire. Perhaps we common folk are seen by the “elite” as too stupid, ill-equipped and undisciplined to co-operate without any social structures – the elite being the folk of economics, politics, military and media, as according to Charles Wright Mills.
So automatically we can throw anarchism and socialism out the window. Hell, we’re even led to believe that anarchism is evil, a form of bloodlust, a rebellious act against authority. These political ideals require a large amount of discipline from individuals and communities. Or so the elite think. I still feel these political moulds can work. But to be totally honest with you, I would prefer to revert to life without these complex , imaginary structures and live simple. I don’t know about you guys but I can get sick and tired of all this shit.
