Everyday Canvas

Function of the Writer

Prompt: The function of the artist or writer
"The function of the artist is to make people like life better than before."
Kurt Vonnegut
What do you think the function of the writer is, if any?

------------

Sometimes I ask questions here to which I don't know the answers myself. This--the function of the writer--is one of them.

I write because I like to do it as I have always been a fan of words and languages. I also studied lit and linguistics and did write some research stuff on those. Did I have a specific aim in doing those? I don't think so. I did do what felt good at the time. I still do what feels good to me.

Generally speaking, however, writers--through their writing--can create an effect on the readers or they aim to do so, whether it is to inform, entertain, persuade, document, educate, inspire, or express creatively. This is because writing is a means of self-expression, and in some psychological therapies, the therapists advise people to keep a journal or a diary. Then, most of us, like me, write down things so we can remember them later. Yet, there are those writers who write to persuade people or change minds, and therefore, their writing becomes something like documentation.

Anyway, for whatever reason something is written, any piece of writing automatically becomes a document that has recorded something which shows the context of a civilization. That is why we still treasure the cuneiform tablets and papyrus leaves that give us a glimpse of the earliest civilizations' writings.

Coming back to the idea of the function of a writer, I don't think writers sit down to write a poem or a story, thinking, "This is my function." That very writing may only be their emotional response to something or they may just have a record-keeping mind that enabled them to write. Still, even when writing can be for persuasion or teaching or record keeping, it is an art form in itself and while doing it, I don't believe any one creative writer ever considers its "function."

As Vonnegut said, however, what a writer writes can "make people like life better than before" or maybe, if lucky, what a writer writes can create some kind of an emotion in the reader.


.