Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been meaning to read Stephen King's On Writing for some time, and now that I've done it, it's something of a wake up call.
Something that King gets straight early on in the memoir is the importance of reading AND writing for any writer. I suppose I do loads of the former, but how about the latter? Time to amp up the hours, cut out YouTube and reserve a slice of early morning for creative outpouring...

On Writing is accessible, humorous and wonderfully insightful. It begins by seeming part-memoir through the way King writes about his early childhood, relationship with his family and later alcoholic problems - until we realize that every detail he offers helps explain why he is the writer he eventually became. From working for his brother's "magazine," "Dave's Rag," to virtually forgetting the experience of writing a whole book because he was so often under the influence, King has taken quite the writer's journey. And as he reminds us, behind the success of every bestseller was the huge pile of rejection letters he had pinned onto his wall with a spike.

The memoir is full of writing-advice gems such as these:

"The writer’s original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the reader’s."

“Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation.”

"Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don’t feel like it, and sometimes you’re doing good work when it feels like all you’re managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position."

I don't think I'll be able to use "the fact that" again, now that I know how much King detests it.

King also cautions us on the overuse of adverbs and misuse of dialogue attribution, and praises both the power of the paragraph and of choosing simpler words. He also notes the shortcomings of language itself: "The word is only a representation of the meaning; even at its best, writing almost always falls short of full meaning."

A whole section of On Writing is dedicated to the beautiful metaphor of a one's writing skills as a toolbox, where the "bread of writing," vocabulary, goes on the top drawer, followed by grammar and elements of style. If you haven't got the time to read the whole book or can't find it in your local bookstore, here are the 'toolboxs page:' https://thewritersjourney2011.wikispa...

Reading this novel, I felt that there were times when King glossed over certain details (his alcoholism, for instance, but I guess that isn't the point of the memoir). Nonetheless, I loved how I could resonate with some of his own experiences; from toothache - "each time I swallowed, pain lit up the sides of my face like a jukebox" (this is precisely what I tried to articulate post-wisdom tooth surgery ) - to a love for reading -

I take a book with me everywhere I go, and find there are all sorts of opportunities to dip in. The trick is to teach yourself to read in small sips as well as in long swallows. Waiting rooms are made for books—of course! But so are theater lobbies before the show, long and boring checkout lines, and everyone's favorite, the john.

Yet the one pithy motto I'll take away with me forever is this:

You must not come lightly to the blank page.

Like all art, writing demands dedication and attention. With toolbox in hand, I vow to come to the blank page with the serious intention of creating something meaningful, perfecting my craft - and having a great time.

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The search for peace of mind

My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind by Scott Stossel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Scott Stossel's My Age of Anxiety is a personal, honest and thorough exploration of anxiety - what it is, how it manifests itself, how it is treated and how it may, in moderate levels, even be a blessing.

Anxiety may be defined as "a signal that the usual defenses against unbearably painful views of the self are failing." Exploring its various interpretations in the opening chapter of the book, The Riddle of Anxiety, Stossel writes that it is a "medical illness," a "philosophical problem," a "psychological problem" and perhaps even "a cultural condition, a function of the times we live in and the structure of our society." Molecular genetics have also suggested that anxiety has hereditary roots; Stossel, who belongs to a family of phobics, is living proof of this. Indeed, it is striking to note that we share the same evolutionary roots as rats and marine snails when it comes to fight-and-flight reactions. Is anxiety purely a cruel trick of our biological mechanisms, then? Perhaps not. As Stossel points out, what differentiates humans and animals is our orientation towards the future. "An animal cannot fear death," the source of many of our "fear of ontological givens"

So, these categories are certainly not mutually exclusive. As Stossel writes, "anxiety is at once a function of biology and philosophy, body and mind, instinct and reason, personality and culture."

Focusing on the impact of culture on anxiety, Stossel also discusses the ways in which our understanding of and response to anxiety have changed over time. For example, the fight-or-flight reaction mentioned above was well adapted to dealing with legitimate physical dangers in the past. Yet these days, this response is activated by what tumblr might term '21st-century-problems.' Among the few listed in the book, "the college application process" is the one I identify with the most. As Stossel eloquently puts it, the result is that we end up "marinating in a stew of stress hormones" that are detrimental to our health and only elevate our anxiety.

Moreover, the digital age in has heralded a sprawl of choices and possibilities that did not exist before. We, before a myriad options that at once liberate and trap us, have become victims of the "paradox of choice." Thus, as Stossel proposes, maybe anxiety is "a luxury" - in many ways, it is the consequence of the breadth of personal freedom that the generations before us did not have. Moreover, as social media continues to construct extreme standards of beauty, what psychologists call "impression management" - the fear that others will perceive one's inadequate self - has now become both a symptom and cause of anxiety.

Throughout the book, Stossel also outlines the many ways of curing anxiety, including riveting personal anecdotes. The most memorable of these is his horrifying experience of trying to vomit. Such an approach falls under the umbrella of "exposure therapy" - the process of exposing ourselves to what makes us anxious in order to overcome it. There is also the biomedical approach, which tackles the mechanisms of anxiety by focusing on research concerning the amygdala (the part of the brain that controls fear) and hippocampus. Interestingly, research has shown that people who meditate have much denser amygdalas. Other approaches include the experiential approach, which seeks to addresses the issues underlying anxiety, and the psychoanalytical approach, which encourages patients to develop a conscious awareness of their repressed conflicts in order to achieve a sense of emotional closure.

Moreover, Stossel also explores how drugs have worked to cure - but perhaps even increase - anxiety. In the case of the former, drugs such as Xanax and Prozac have been used by celebrities, musicians and thousands of anxious people worldwide. On the other hand, the presence of these drugs might have put into place a self-fulfilling prophecy regarding anxiety; indeed, reported cases of anxiety have soared since the drugs first entered pharmacies. You would think that more people would feel stressed out during World War One than now, but in fact statistics show that the latter is true instead. In legitimizing anxiety in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), have we merely escalated what could otherwise be simply referred to as 'worry?' In some cases, many may be tempted to say yes. Yet Stossel's story and those of the many others he writes about suggest that anxiety is - in its harshest form - a draining, debilitating and maybe even fatal condition.

In the midst of all our fears and anxieties, however, a silver lining persists. For example, Stossel argues that those who are phobic "retain their love for mankind" by transferring their fear of humanity's evils onto other things, like the dark. Those who are anxious are also more sensitive to others' feelings, making them - in some ways - better spouses and friends. Finally, most worriers are workers; don't we all know that one person in our class or office who frets about the tiniest details but scores the highest on the exam or gets the first promotion? If harnessed properly, anxiety can fuel our productivity. Stossel writes about a basketball player who used to vomit before every match but would then go on to play incredibly (up to the point where his coach would not allow the game to begin until he had vomited). Isn't Stossel himself, editor of The Atlantic and author of this incredible work, also proof of how anxiety can help people achieve more and with more focus?

I find it astounding that Stossel has written this book, "come out of the closet" as it were, and shared his fears and findings with the world. My Age of Anxiety is an astounding "quest to understand, and to find relief or redemption in, anxious suffering." It is an important read for not only the people who suffer from anxiety, but also the families and friends of those who live in "fear, hope, dread" and are ever on "the search for peace of mind."




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