WP4: The Free Spirit of Writing
In the course of WRIT150 this semester, I discovered an “exit” to express my emotions and reflections, learned to think freely against oppression, and hope that the free spirit of writing will challenge the existing cultural hegemony. I hope the readers of this article can comprehend the practical significance of writing and put it into practice, so as to strengthen it while being strengthened by it. In addition, it is important to note the difference between the process and work of writing. The process is the lasting action of discovering and expressing; while the work is the visualized product, such as articles and books. The process is always free, but publishing the work is sometimes limited by social factors, especially under the oppressors’ regime.
First of all, writing gives me space to express my emotions and thoughts. When people are exhausted from surviving in modern fast-paced life, the complex emotions we have accumulated need a way to digest. As the famous Japanese writer Haruki Murakami said:
“Things must have both an entrance and an exit. A person who lives for a long time will always actively and passively accept many things and draw a lot of emotion. This is the entrance. … If there is only one entrance, it is a channel for all kinds of things to merely surge in and there is no relief. One day the brain will explode. That’s why there will be confiding…writing is probably such an exit “(1979: 35).
Writing does provide me with such an exit, a spiritual space, to relieve my emotions. It allows me to temporarily break away from worldly life and reflect on myself. Specifically, I carefully organize my thoughts and write actual words, where the process itself is a way of expression and decompression. Then, the delivery and sharing of these works help me find like-minded partners and absorb different perspectives, just as students read each other’s works and provide suggestions for revisions during WRIT150. In other words, the writing process allows me to visualize and express abstract thoughts, thereby forming something that does exist and can be shared (work), which makes me feel my existence and resonance with others.
(Murakami is one of my favorite writers, see my previous post regarding his work Kafka on the Shore)
Secondly, writing allows me to think freely and independently. Writers master their pens, explore every corner of their heart, and willingly express any ideas. Perhaps the propagation of works is limited by political, cultural, and ideological factors, but at least the writing process can be free from interruption. This free spirit reminds me of what Brazilian educator Paulo Freire called “liberating education” in Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2014: 35). In a healthy conversation relationship, love and freedom are people’s consensuses, and the “true word” is their building block. In Freire’s words, “there is no true word that is not at the same time a praxis. Thus, to speak a true word is to transform the world” (2014: 87). At the same time, “saying [the true] word is not the privilege of some few persons, but the right of everyone” (2014: 88).
Thankfully, in WRIT150, Professor Dissinger gave this “right of everyone” to each student and encouraged us to write personally unique true words to “transform the world”. Specifically, Professor Dissinger never designs stereotyped topics to make us write “an alienated and alienating ‘blah’” (2014: 87), but through heuristic prompts to guide us deeply understand our knowledge sources and identity establishments, such as The Discourse on Education and Intellectual Development and The Intellectual Autobiography. For me, I have gained rich reflections: in WP1, I analyzed my high school’s oppression towards new students; in WP2, I realized my inferiority complex; finally, in WP3, I learned the importance of independence and suitable humbleness, thus reconciling with myself and more firmly fulfilling my caring standpoint. In Freire’s words, the writer’s “reflection” can bring “action” and ultimately change the world (2014: 87).
In the future, free writing also makes me expect the impact of subculture on the so-called mainstream culture. In any society, there is a hegemonic culture where its ruling class hopes to control the society. For example, in my previous post, I discussed how the movie American Sniper evilized the Arabic people and justified the American invasion. In the current society, as the American theologian Millard Shaull written in the foreword of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, “our advanced technological society is rapidly making objects of most of us and subtly programming us into conformity to the logic of its system.” (2014: 33).
Though facing such a hegemony, the free spirit of writing advocated by WRIT150 has the potential to overthrow it. As the British media theorist Dick Hebdige proposed in his famous work Subculture: the meaning of style:
“These ‘humble objects’ can be magically appropriated; ‘stolen’ by subordinate groups and made to carry ‘secret’ meanings: meanings which express, in code, a form of resistance to the order which guarantees their continued subordination” (2013: 18).
Here, Hebdige believes that culture, including hegemonic culture, is composed of a series of invisible symbols and codes. Such elements of culture determine at the interface of writer, reader, and the reader’s social world, the “hegemony” is always unstable. Therefore, it creates opportunities for subversion and resistance of the hegemony. In the WRIT150 class, the free spirit as “a form of resistance” encourages me and other peers to challenge the established cultural hegemony through words, eventually inspiring our readers to overthrow the authority.
In a nutshell, writing gives me an “exit” to express my thoughts and cultivates my free spirit. Consequently, not only can it help eliminate oppressive education but also challenge the existing cultural hegemony. However, words are only one means of expression. Music, photos, or movies are all places where hegemony inhabits. Therefore, what is important is not writing, but the free spirit that it stimulates. Only when we internalize this spirit and continue to uphold it, can it become social guidance and in turn guide more people.
Let this breath of freedom lead us to the dream world, and, the world’s dream.
References
Murakami, Haruki. 1979. Pinball, 1973. Tokyo: KODANSHA LTD.
Freire, Paulo. 2014. Pedagogy of the Oppressed Thirtieth-anniversary edition. New York: Bloomsbury.
Hebdige, Dick. 2013. Subculture: the meaning of style. London: Routledge.
