Eli Solt

“Life is too serious for me to go on writing. Life used to be easier, and often pleasant, and then writing was pleasant, though it also seemed serious. Now life is not easy, it has gotten very serious, and by comparison, writing seems a little silly. Writing is often not about real things, and then, when it is about real things, it is often at the same time taking the place of some real things. Writing is too often about people who can’t manage. Now I have become one of those people. I am one of those people. What I should do, instead of writing about people who can’t manage, is just quit writing and learn to manage. And pay more attention to life itself. The only way I will get smarter is by not writing anymore. There are other things I should be doing instead” (Davis 252).

For some reason, out of all the really interesting stories in this book I ended choosing one that was about writing itself. Ironic, right? I kept wondering why it resonated with me so much. Maybe it’s because I write as well. Maybe it’s because it gives some fascinating insight into the mind of such an incredible writer that Lydia Davis is. Maybe it’s because of its bluntness and honesty. Regardless of my interest, I wanted to explore the short excerpt a bit more to reveal some of it’s secrets

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In “writing”, the speaker is explaining how life has gotten far more serious than what it used to be and how that now that it isn’t as fun and simple, writing seems a bit ridiculous since it is usually not about real things. The speaker is sort of giving up, saying that writing has no purpose in a serious life and it is better to spend time doing actual real life things that matter.

Lydia Davis was not always interested in becoming a writer. She actually started off studying music originally and in a way, she seemed to be almost reluctant to start writing. On one occasion she said, "I was probably always headed to being a writer, even though that wasn't my first love. I guess I must have always wanted to write in some part of me or I wouldn't have done it.”

This quote pairs really well with this specific piece because it’s all about a general reluctance toward writing. I believe she is speaking from her own experience, showing a little bit of regret about choosing this career path. There is a pretty strong melancholy tone that makes you feel as though she imagined herself doing something different with her life like music.

There is a heavy use of verbal irony in it because while it may look rather straightforward at first, the entire piece gives off a very sarcastic tone. And understanding that tone is important because you can read the piece entirely differently and see that she isn’t really being serious about all of this. Though, even if she is, the audience can see how ridiculous some of it is.  

Part of what makes the whole thing ironic is that we know she finished the book and kept writing. She is basically making fun of what she enjoys doing. Everyone likes a person who can make fun of themselves, right? Also, the use of the “I” pronoun here is very important because we read this through the perspective of Lydia Davis hersel—almost like an internal dialogue. There is a power in using the first person singular in that it feels very honest and raw. She’s putting herself in a vulnerable position and looking at evaluating own life.  

This applies to all of our lives.

Davis is asking where writing is headed, both metaphorically through the fragmented structure of her book as well as by asking directly in this piece. She wonders what it’s purpose is. We’re constantly reading and writing short little blips of thoughts, random ideas, stuff that happens throughout our days, whether it is on Twitter or in text or in a Snapchat. We are constantly creating short anecdotes all the time, usually without even realizing that we are doing so.

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A long time ago, Aristotle came up with this idea called Mimesis. I’m sure you’ve probably heard of it at some point. It’s the idea that art often imitates life. And then a little while later (ok, hundreds of years later), Oscar Wilde came along and in his 1891 essay “The Decay of Lying”, he suggested an idea of anti-mimesis or the idea that life more often imitates art.

What a twist! 

Wilde states in the essay that the “self-conscious aim of life is to find expression” and this idea ties back in to a central theme of Davis’s writing which is this meaning. She keeps referring to what life and writing are about; whether that is “real things” or “silly things” or “things for people who can’t manage”. On the internet, we often write about the mundane, average things in our daily lives.

Davis’s entire book, not just this sample is reflective of this postmodern writing concept that we often creating meaning out of nothing. Some of her stories are several pages while some are no longer than the length of a tweet. Many of them talk about seemingly random things that have happened in her life or thoughts that she has had. Unless you’re in an upper-level college English class (believe me, I’ve been there), most people wouldn’t look for any deeper meaning in any of this…

…and that’s what Davis is trying to accomplish.

She is placing a greater responsibility on the reader to find purpose in the writing. She is trying to show that the creation of meaning is not entirely the responsibility of the author but it is also shared with the reader who puts their own personal background and perspective of the world in the interpretation.

If you’re reading this before you’ve had your morning coffee, well…I apologize. It’s about to get existential.

I think that this short piece really makes us stop wonder why we do what we do and why us writers even write at all. If we look around and find no meaning in life then there really is no point in writing. But if that were the case, that could also imply that there is no inherent point in living. That’s depressing and not something many people want to hear. However, paradoxically, the meaning we find in life may come from reading itself and that could be any source of art whether it’s literature or music or photography. The meaning to life is whatever we want it to be. It could be a Picasso painting, a David Bowie song, or the half-eaten can of pringles on your sofa.

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This short piece is all about self-reflection. Despite her dull utterances, I believe that Davis genuinely feels that writing is really important and isn’t silly. She is simply daunted by the weight of responsibility of creating meaning and significance. It comes with a sort of hubris, like who am I to put importance to this?

It reads sort of like she’s having a bit of a breakdown. Repeating certain phrases like “I am one of those people”. When she says that she should stop writing and focus on real things, she stops before elaborating on what those “real things” are. She does this intentionally because she doesn’t have an answer. She seems lost like she doesn’t have anywhere to go if she does give up writing.

Maybe it’s all she knows.

Regardless, she is simply wrestling with the idea that all of this is nonsense. She’s trapped in the thought that what she creates may not go on to have any significance. That’s a scary thought for all of us, and if it really doesn’t, there has be something better that we can spend our time doing. Yet, she comes back to writing. She has the ability to create her own narrative and that’s where her interpretation of the world comes from.

She comes back to decide that there is purpose in it for her and potentially for others. Otherwise why even bother publishing the book?

This applies to everyone.

Why do I write?

Why am I reading twitter?

Why do I have a twitter account in the first place?

It can seem ridiculous at first, but just like Monet splashing abstract colors onto a canvas, sometimes you have to step back and take it all in for it to come to life.

And maybe then you can begin to see that this does matters. Literature and all other forms of art have great significance in our lives. Because for the people who witness that art, there is meaning in it for them.

***

Like Davis says, life has gotten serious. But if we don’t write and tell our stories then we will become apathetic. We’ll become so secluded and introverted within ourselves that we won’t be able to connect with the world or others around us in any meaningful way. And that seems to be one of the greatest concerns of this generation.

In our world of senseless violence and absurdity there seems to be no meaning to anything. Yet, through Irony, Davis says that we as human beings, as writers and readers (because that’s all of us), whether it is a novel or a newspaper or a tweet have the shared responsibility to create meaning.

To sometimes find it out of seemingly nothing in our everyday experiences.

It’s the only way that we can cope and deal with our current problems.

Writing can put some order to a chaotic world. It can allow us to be those people who don’t know what better things to do than to write or distract ourselves.

And in that, I think Davis is saying that writing might be our best hope for finding tomorrow.

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