Essayism, as an expressive mode and as a way of life, accommodates our insecurities, our self-absorption, our simple pleasures, our unnerving questions and the need to compare and share our experiences with other humans. I would argue that the weakest component in today’s nontextual essayism is its meditative deficiency. Without the meditative aspect, essayism tends toward empty egotism and an unwillingness or incapacity to commit, a timid deferral of the moment of choice. Our often unreflective quickness means that little time is spent interrogating things we’ve touched upon. The experiences are simply had and then abandoned. The true essayist prefers a more cumulative approach; nothing is ever really left behind, only put aside temporarily until her digressive mind summons it up again, turning it this way and that in a different light, seeing what sense it makes. She offers a model of humanism that isn’t about profit or progress and does not propose a solution to life but rather puts endless questions to it.
So many great thoughts in Christy Wampole’s “The Essayification of Everything” in The New York Times.
Reblogged this on better on paper.
I just got Kate Zambreno’s Heroines in the mail today – she makes ‘the essay’ personal and flexible in delivery and style. Can’t wait to dig in!
I can relate to this. I’m not a professional writer, nor seek to be, but I do feel a need to write and contemplate ideas through the written word. I’m enjoying looking through your blog. Thanks for sharing!
Very well-written. I love this essay and how you explain how you learned from your writing what your theme is for your poetry. How gratifying that must be. Thanks for sharing this essay. I’ll pass this along.