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"Early in the morning, when day breaks, when all is fresh, in the dawn of one's strength - to read a book at such a time is simply depraved!"
-- Nietzsche
Ah, there's an insight that pierces to my soul. He is speaking as a writer, and many times in years past I have had this debate with myself. The morning is one's most vital time, especially for the brain, the mind. And there were even times when I made a point of giving my mornings to my writing. But I never had anything worthwhile to say. It always felt like a waste of a perfectly good morning.
So, it's no longer even a debate for me today. I am not a writer, at least not in any socially meaningful sense of the word - and certainly not in any financial sense. It is all I can do to be a decent reader. It would be almost impossible, for instance, for me to find my way through Nietzsche's books if I did not give my clear-eyed mornings to them. As another writer put it: every would-be writer, at some point in his life, needs to make a hard determination over whether he is really a writer or just a reader. And I guess it's clear where I fall. Oh, writing is still important to me, but as a means of personal therapy rather than as a social role. And I don't need to spend my best energies on it.
-- Nietzsche
Ah, there's an insight that pierces to my soul. He is speaking as a writer, and many times in years past I have had this debate with myself. The morning is one's most vital time, especially for the brain, the mind. And there were even times when I made a point of giving my mornings to my writing. But I never had anything worthwhile to say. It always felt like a waste of a perfectly good morning.
So, it's no longer even a debate for me today. I am not a writer, at least not in any socially meaningful sense of the word - and certainly not in any financial sense. It is all I can do to be a decent reader. It would be almost impossible, for instance, for me to find my way through Nietzsche's books if I did not give my clear-eyed mornings to them. As another writer put it: every would-be writer, at some point in his life, needs to make a hard determination over whether he is really a writer or just a reader. And I guess it's clear where I fall. Oh, writing is still important to me, but as a means of personal therapy rather than as a social role. And I don't need to spend my best energies on it.
