From a Q & A with Matthew Gallaway, author of
The Metropolis Case:
Q: So I have heard you, or read you, say that the world would be a better place if everyone who was behooved to write a book wrote one. What are some of the benefits, do you think, to sitting with yourself and sort of daring to do that? What did you learn-- or what does writing do for you, on an individual level, on a capital-S Self level?
A: For me, I think the major benefit of writing -- to put in psychoanalytical terms (I'm a big Jungian!) -- is that it offers the opportunity to connect with and interpret one's 'unconscious,' to have greater insight into why we act the way we do (because let's face it: it's often a mystery, particularly when we're young!), with the hope that by doing so, we become more 'human' and perhaps even more rational, i.e., less reactive. Of course I'm not saying that to write a book is the ONLY way to do this, but I think it would be very difficult on some level to write one (or at least a novel) without some understanding of who we are at a very fundamental level, which can also be important in terms of developing a sense of empathy both for ourselves and others. In my case, I grew up as something of a bookworm and always had urges to write -- I kept diaries and notebooks and things -- but it was not until I 'came out' (to give one obvious example) that I developed the patience to write anything cohesive, to really tell stories, so to speak, and I think that's probably because I was better able to decipher my own, if that makes sense. So when I talk about the world being a better place if more people wrote books, it refers to the idea that if more of us could afford the luxury (and unfortunately, it often is a luxury, given the demands -- often painful -- of daily life) of introspection and creation, I think it...[read on]
--Marshal Zeringue