Does doing something or traveling somewhere with the intention of later writing about the experience make the experience itself, and thus whatever you later write about it, insincere? If so, does acknowledging that conundrum in the writing offset the insincerity or does it just put you into wibbly wobbly oscillation zone?
tl;drdoes the ride ever end?
>>7473218
>Does doing something or traveling somewhere with the intention of later writing about the experience make the experience itself, and thus whatever you later write about it, insincere?
Yes.
/Thread
>>7473235
Maybe.
/Thread
Cultivating any experience with the intention of mining for words is, at its heart, insincere. The only thing that matters, though, is the final product.
>>7473218
Depends on what you mean by sincerity, OP. I will say that once you step outside yourself and observe things from another perspective (i.e. 'I'm going to write about this later,' but also even just 'I'm going to remember this later') changes how you experience something initially.
Maybe it's inauthentic authenticity (you know, the old Capote canard about being a 'real fake' and all that).
>>7473585
>>7473623
This is my conundrum, there are experiences that I want to have for the sake of having them (personal growth, widening perspective, and all that) but I also write and generally have it in the back of my mind that interesting experiences are good fodder for material and jump-off points for exploring larger topics.
I sincerely (though I couldn't prove that to you here) have a desire to understand things in more honest and nuanced ways through writing (and hopefully other mediums too). One part thinks that to achieve that goal it'd be better not to concern myself with this (in)sincerity conundrum, but another part is keenly and fearfully aware that craft (including hopefully a better understanding of this problem) must precede art.
>>7473218
It will make the thing you're doing insincere, but not the writing.
OP, you posted a picture of DFW.
DFW went out and purposely spent "hundreds" (his word) of hours sitting in halfway houses. And he didn't do it because he was strung out. And he didn't do it because he liked the company (probably).
He did it to observe.
Observing is not insincere.
Yes, if you go out and buy a bag of blacktar heroin and get yourself strung out, you won't be able to write sincerely about addiction.
If you start hitting on the female friend you think isn't very attractive and then sleep with her for 'the experience,' then you won't be able to write sincerely about that relationship.
However, if you are genuinely interested in that female friend romantically, and ask her out, and at some point think, 'Huh, I wonder if I'll be able to use some part of this experience in my writing,' then you'll be fine.
As a writer (or someone who writes, whatever), you can't divorce yourself from your hobby in order to keep your writing 'pure' or 'sincere.' /That/ would be insincere.
>>7475019
lol. wut?
>If you start hitting on the female friend you think isn't very attractive and then sleep with her for 'the experience,' then you won't be able to write sincerely about that relationship.
>if you are genuinely interested in that female friend romantically, and ask her out, and at some point think, 'Huh, I wonder if I'll be able to use some part of this experience in my writing,' then you'll be fine.
You literally disproved yourself.
>>7475039
I don't think he did. The motives are different.
One has genuine romantic interest, making it "sincere", while the other is just motivated by the pursuit for experience, and therefore "insincere".
>>7475092
The question was if you start off something with the intention of writing about something, are you being insincere? The answer is yes, and the guy agreed with OP while trying to disagree.
If he enters into the relationship with the unattractive friend with the intention of writing about it, then he's being insincere. If he enters into the relationship with the unattractive friend with no intention of writing about it, but does decide to write about it after the relationship ends, then he's being sincere. He didn't have any intention to write about it, and the relationship played out without a thought to write about it, so he can sincerely write about the relationship.
The same can be said about anything. Just because you're a writer, it doesn't mean you can no longer do anything sincerely, but once you do decide to write about something the experience becomes insincere.
Then the question becomes, what if you do something sincerely and then decide to write about it? Are your memories of the situation not affected by the intention to write about it? Does that not make it just as insincere as deciding to write about the experience of something before you do it?
It also forces you to question writing about something as it's happening. Is that not the only possible way to be sincere. No. Because "while it's happening" means there's more to come. The second you decide to put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard to write about, you lose sincerity toward the situation.
The answer is no. The fact that you decided to write about an experience after it happened is the closest we'll get to sincerity. You can't decide to write about something beforehand because it will affect your decisions and you'll only get insincerity. You can't decide to write about something while it's happening because it will affect your decisions and you'll only get insincerity. You can only write about something after it happened and while you didn't know you were going to write about it. Only then will you get closest to honest sincerity and true reflection.
If you are constantly writing this is not an issue since writing is part of what you do. People who need to motivate themselves to write probably won't ever get very far. Example:
"I have taken many an insincere breath, but I assure you they were all necessary."
>>7475190
See my question here: >>7474420
What if I have an experience, or am about to have one, and think "huh, this would be cool/useful/valuable/interesting to write about"? Not going in with the intention of coming out with Infinite Jest 2 (or is it 4...), but with the understanding that it may influence writing I'd do later on, thus the writing itself is a byproduct rather than the whole purpose of the experience. Of course, it would still influence how observant I am and what I pay attention to.
I'm of the opinion that collecting/connecting diverse experiences and fields of knowledge is key to creative work (even up to the level of art), so the most intentional I'd be going into a new experience is toward that end of having diverse experiences.
This introduces perhaps a different question, though: if writing (or creative work, or art in general) is a part of my identity (as the work is inexorable from a collection of knowledge and experience unique to me), then does the act of being more observant in a particular experience actually make me more sincere? Versus if writing is just something I do but don't define myself by.
>>7475287
Obviously, this is a near impossible question to answer. It's a "chicken or the egg" question.
I won't say unequivocally one way or another, but I believe that most great creative works come from an author deciding to write about an event or particular time in their life after that thing happened, with no intention to write about it in the first place. Even if a writer has completed a great work before, he/she continues to live their life until they've decided it's time to put pen to paper and fingers to keyboard again.
I believe that if you go in with the intention of writing about an experience before you have actually had the experience, it's essentially journalism or documentary. There are, of course, great works in journalism or documentary, but I put them in a different category than the great creative works.
I think you should always be observant but, as many other greater minds than mine have said, choosing what you don't write about is just as important as choosing what you do write about.
>>7473218
Most fiction writers (including DFW) go alone to malls and coffee shops just to observe others' conversations. Observing is not insincere - at least, not David Foster Wallace's definition of sincere.
>>7475834
Hmm, I might be beating a slowly-dying horse here, but I'm curious to know how you'd distinguish that purely observational role with taking an active role in an experience.
>>7475213
>If you are constantly writing this is not an issue since writing is part of what you do
this and /thread
You cannot preclude someone whose effortful striving towards becoming a writer, a striving that permeates their life, as someone existing inauthentically and writing inauthentically because he both plans to have experiences and plans to write about them. Absurd
>>7475820
>most great creative works come from an author deciding to write about an event or particular time in their life after that thing happened, with no intention to write about it in the first place
this simply isn't true though. It is true only insofar as first novels go, when the author reflects on experiences to create his novel. Once he's assured of making a living off writing, he finds the rhythms and the words that make up all the life around him and is constantly thinking about writing for his next work, as he experiences life
>he/she continues to live their life until they've decided it's time to put pen to paper and fingers to keyboard again
to write novels you have to be a vigilant collector of ideas, thoughts, experiences, etc. It is MUCH more likely the novelist is constantly looking at the world through the eyes of a writer
Experiencing something only for the sake of writing about it doesn't invalidate what you write later. It just invalidates your experience. It won't make your writing worse. But it will make your life worse.
