presents “Two Voices” – a discussion about writing
by 2 writers, Alfred Brown and Anh Thi
(male) ALFRED
I’m hesitant to create a list, because I’m afraid to leave out anyone. But it’s the writers who helped me through my hardest times that encourage me. And these are not the same people who give seminars to encourage people to be writers.
They are just writers whom I like. I’ve read pretty much all Murakami’s work, and I read the big four of Faulkner’s novels, and I thought Watership Down was great.
I love to read Dickinson when it comes to poetry, and Bob Dylan and 2pac are both amazing as well (just hard to think of their work separate from the music). Hamlet is probably my favorite play, though I do like Beckett and Pinter and Stoppard.
But do they inspire me? More like, when that child of reason wants to remind me that it’s waste of time, that irrational addict part of me wants something to grasp onto. It grasps on their anecdotal successes that should in no way sway me because they are so few.
But I don’t ever think of it so directly as specific writers, if I did, I’d see it too rationally to be effective. I just think, well, some people have done it, some people have made something that affects people, they’ve affected me, maybe… And I just leave it at that, often it’s enough.
(female) ANH
I am inspired by love and passion. When writers and artists express what they love tempered with skill, it entrances me. Work that is framed by passion is something to pay attention to. Dickinson, Shakespeare! Ayn Rand. Lennon, Swift. They’ve succeeded in capturing an aspect of the human condition in a work that can make us feel, make us think, or encourage us to think.
We lead such busy lives. There’s so much noise in the world, and in our heads. So to be able to stop for a moment, entranced by the expression of another person’s voice. That is something, that someone got you to pause, breathe, think, feel or enjoy a few moments outside of that noise. And that is inspiring.