Cheese

I actually have no idea what to write about. I guess there wasn’t exactly a prompt, other than connect remixes to the All Writing Is Autobiography paper. One connection is fairly obvious, and it’s the fact that someone’s writing, in a way, is a remix of their life experiences. This essentially makes all of one’s writing autobiographical, which is why it was mentioned that this argument is lazy, since it is so obviously true. I don’t know if I would say it is “lazy,” but it definitely isn’t the hardest point to argue. For example, my friend coincidentally just sent me this poem he wrote last year. They were asked to write a poem about cheese. He got 100 on it because it, “reflected him so well.”

Cheese,

It’s pretty good,

I hate poetry.

Don’t waste time wrapping your poem in cheese,

Tell me what the f--- you want to say.

In fact, stop writing poetry,

Spend your time eating cheese,

and writing something that actually matters.

#f---soundandsense

Obviously this is a fairly extreme example, but you probably know him fairly well now despite the fact that you don’t even know his name (yeah, he’s pretty cheesy). Can this be proof for how all writing is autobiographical? No, but I’m fairly certain that the author means autobiographical in a metaphorical sense. The writing tells you about the writer, but the literal meaning of the words isn’t necessarily true. I think this brings up a good point though, because it can be connected to art. Are some writings inherently better because they are autobiographical? For example, let’s say you read two poems. Both poems are about the hardships and struggles of war, but one of the writers has actually been on a battlefield and seen the life drain from his friends right in front of him. The other guy just had to write a poem for a school assignment. So, which poem do you think you will like more? The poem from the guy who actually experienced war? But why? I haven’t told you anything about the writing skills of either person, but it seems like the soldier’s would be better, or at least more worthwhile. What if the poem by the other guy was better? Would you consider it to be worth “less” because he never actually experienced a war? What if the other guy just framed it as war, but it was actually about his autism and his constant struggle of trying to recognize and comprehend social cues? What if this had cost him countless relationships, and he compared it to not watching his friends’ backs on the battlefield that is life? I guess my point is that writing doesn’t have to be literal to be autobiographical.

I asked a lot more questions than I answered in the last paragraph, but what can I say? I’m a questionable guy—Erm, I mean, I’m a curious guy.

On the subject of poems though, if ya’ll have any cool poems that you have written, it’d be cool if you posted them in the blog. One of my favorite things to do is see how skilled my peers are and wonder what happened to me.