Eating a Philosophy

Ken Burgess
Aug 23, 2017 · 2 min read

I’d like to share a very profound realization that I received while pondering a question that writer’s have pondered and will always ponder, “What makes a classic piece of writing?”

From today’s novel, The Whistler (John Grisham), to yesterday’s novel, The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood), and even going all the way back to The Waste Land (T.S. Eliot), you will find that these writers’ physical presence (or literary presence) were based on some sort of philosophy. Whether it be a philosophy in history, a philosophy in economics, a philosophy in religion, nature, landscape, I’ve found that enduring writer’s of this level (heavily read over the years) are usually heavily based in some sort of philosophy. Ok, and a little luck to, but hear me out.

As it relates to my crazy theory, everyone of these writers ate a philosophy. Eating, meaning they ingested their base philosophy from research, whether it be from the internet, books, lecture, debate, a college degree, anything that aided them in their being a projected voice out into the world — for the sake of sharing that philosophy.

But one may ask, “Why does the way of a philosophy grant a writer endurance through the ages?”

It seems to me that since we live in a world that is no where near perfect, there will always be room for improvement and this is usually done (on a human level) by the works of great minds. Great minds walk the earth and reek of some sort of philosophy or solution to “The Problem”, then encapsulate it into a story be it a play, a short story, a novel or a movie.

Perhaps you might be able to see from the opposite:

•A writer without a philosophy could face the great possibility of appearing contradictory, false, stereotypical — to name a few. As a result, this same writer would have a writing career that lacks the endurance that one might have set out for.

While on the other hand:

•Writers with a philosophy become sort of the fruit on the tree of history; they tend to be markers of history.

So, eat a philosophy of some sort and make your chances of writing an enduring novel a higher possibility.

)

Ken Burgess

Written by

Aspiring Novelist | USC Trojan | Working on my current novel: The Identity Thief

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