Writer's Lament

There's really no plan. My week is pretty decent so far- another 2 days at anchor, giving me time to relax and prepare for the trip to Tampa, are more than welcomed. Yet I feel generally bored and I'm in no mood for writing. Since Deea took some time to solve her personal issues, the best way to picture me is staring dumbly at the screen with neither the ideas nor the mood to do anything. She did manage to find us the good-hearted Vlad Muresan, who's willing to lend his talents and help out with the website, but now I have to explain to him the crazy ideas I had for its layout and functions by e-mail. I don't know what's more scary: telling him that my vision involves separate coding or actually seeing this site up and running...

What got me down in the gutters wasn't Deea's need for a break though. Not entirely anyway. It was mostly the stats - I masochistically check the blog's views every day. At least two times. And falling from 81 views (Friday) to 25 (yesterday) can get a person to lose faith. Furthermore, I got beaten by my old blog with 52 and 51 views in the last couple of days... A blog that hasn't been updated since Christmas. Ain't that something?

I realized people hate reading. Post a picture of a dog on Facebook and you get 2 shares and 10 likes, but link a text and they are gone, running faster than a vampire at sunrise. God forbid you use English! As a decent and frequent user of the English language, I noticed that more than once people avoid me or just scold me, labeling me a snob. I'm sorry, but do any of you know how hard it is to write about a car chase in Romanian and make it sound exciting? I believe Eddie Izzard had a bit about writing about a car chase; he thought it can't be as thrilling as a movie scene. True, though it depends on how good the director is. Same with books: if you know what details to focus on, you can make everything exciting!

What I'm getting at is that people shouldn't be so quick to write off writings. Pun intended. I'm a huge movie lover and I did my fair share of objective and argumentative criticism regarding a few of Hollywood's productions. But, at the same time, I can honestly say that there is no form of art that allows such freedoms as those granted by writing. A film has a limited time line in which it must capture the important details, whereas a book can go on for as long as it's necessary. Of course, I don't encourage the Proustian style of never-ending descriptions, I'm just saying you have that option!

Oftentimes I've heard the words "I don't like reading". Or, in the past few years, the trendy "I'm not a professor to speak perfect Romanian / English". Since when exactly do you need a teaching diploma to speak and write correctly in your native tongue? I believe it's every man's duty to do that! My Romanian article was about patriotism and the pride one should express about one's nationality. Aside the fact that the concept is idiotic, as you can't be proud of a coincidence, shouldn't we express said patriotism FIRSTLY by showing respect towards our own language? Shouldn't we honor our heritage with this minimal effort?

I speak Romanian, English, Italian. I understand and can speak common French phrases, basic Spanish and a little German. Never have I claimed that everybody should share my talent and love for linguistics, but I can't comprehend this common aversion towards reading, writing and most importantly SPEAKING correctly. Books are not your enemy, folks! Open one - it won't bite!