It is Literature

How well do you comprehend the ambiguity of literature? Often perceived to be fictional truth, an exaggerated manifestation of the conspiring emotions which trouble the mind, it goes further to etch out a path to understand the passive anxiety.

Writing may simply be the urge to chronicle the daily experiences (both significant and insignificant) the daily communications of human aspirations, failures, struggles, heartbreak and pursuits. Even after the communication frenzy, there are so many feelings that remain unexpressed or are not uttered due to social politeness.

Fictional narratives, poetry, and literary writings give the freedom to introspect the limits of human communication and how to stretch the boundaries set by it through storytelling. A storyteller can be inspired by personal experiences, imaginations, and a genuine creative instinct to engage the pen to chronicle different perspectives. 

The idea of providing a range of voices, according to their sentiments, is the writer’s priority, as well as, the responsibility to reach out to the readers. So many voices are compelled by life’s obligations to speak in a common language. The language to engage on a daily basis to discuss the problems and ideas within the premise of society’s decorum. 

A pragmatic approach to creative writing helps narrate the stories through various modes of expression, after a lot of introspection, critical reflection, critical thinking and literary knowledge to author the stories to satiate the curiosity of and the human urge to extract some interesting perspectives to ponder on a new dimension of life. Reading gives hope, breathes life into dormant dreams, and prepares for an audacious journey of communicating them.

Writing can criticise the status quo and erase the space where mental lethargy becomes a norm. Its critical aspect shatters the tightly held beliefs in providing an opposing and contrasting narrative for the readers. Literature can be evolutionary, revolutionary, and contradictory.

It is not easy to define literature; to simplify, it can be considered a highly creative form of human aspirations and the resilience to seek answers through storytelling. Stories to form a connection and a relationship to create an environment of trust, where the metaphors will erase the weaknesses.

Language plays an important role in reflecting on the unfamiliar and illustrating the imaginations. Through the various characters and anonymous voices, it becomes easier drawing attention to the thoughts that are considered out of context. Combining the familiar and the abstract is a difficult task! To improvise with language one has to learn it; it is a continuous process. After all, the writer’s tool is the pen, ink, and language to narrate!

The responsibility of literature is to familiarise the readers with the unfamiliar ideas that either isn’t discussed or remain a blurry concept due to the inability to express them convincingly. To surrender to the metaphysical and retrieve those ideas require literary skill.

Readers have to overstep the idea of ‘ambiguity’ associated with literary writings and delve deeper to understand the meanings. Literature conveys the maximum world, the unexplored world, and survives beyond the criticisms of igniting hopes in readers.

~Amitav