The lecture given by Scott Russell Sanders tonight was really inspiring one for me. During the talk, he read four stories in his book A Private History of Awe. None of them was special enough to be a published story, honestly. One was about his childhood memory of lightening and his father, which he said was the very beginning of his memory. The following two were about his witness of his wife Ruth’s delivery and his experience at his daughter’s wedding. The close story was a part of a letter he wrote to the future children. However common and routine these things sound, I was surprisingly moved to tears when he read the feelings he had when at his daughter’s wedding. I was totally amazed by this old man in front of me when he expressed in words how his heart pounded and thus made him too emotional to function during the wedding and how his steps were out of control while walking her to the groom. From those words alone, I know how much Scott Russell Sanders loved his life and treasured it. He did not take happen moments for granted and was not beaten up by the boredom generated from all the chores in life. Instead, he saw things with a grateful heart, a loving kindness.
Later on at the answer-questions section, when he was asked of his views of the relationship between art and sentimentality, he gave his own interpretation. He believed that all the art works do not give people feelings, but rather appeal to the readers. He quoted somebody who I did not take down to claim that our lives have already filled with highs and lows, all those printed words do is to tag certain moments and leads us to pick up a feeling to experience. “The novel sets everything up and appeals to its readers very much like a test: please feel sad now or lease feel [depressing] now”, he explained. He said that art should not be limited to sentimentality though. There are many good things that happen in life. He admitted that harmonious humanity was harder to write and that explained why novels and films stop at romantic love instead of a durable marriage. He does not like this intendancy of public publishing. The lack of advocating for a durable marriage misleads people to not believe things like a good marriage actually happen. People do not believe in marriage any longer. He insisted that the harmonious humanities are hard to write but it is not because they are rare. Therefore, he encouraged young people to hold fast to the belief in good things. This concern of him also shows in his closing story which is a letter to encourage people to care each other, care the earth.
In terms of internet publishing, he talked about his way of seeing it. He thought that it is much cheaper to publish online but it will be harder for readers since once it publishes on the internet, the work will be surrounded by a group of distractive ads or other information which is not a good reading environment for the readers. He warns the young generation to be aware and mindful about what we see on the internet. He said that the internet was full of data. There are three levels of achievement that people can get from reading those data: information, knowledge, and wisdom. These three aspects are increasingly difficult. The best stage of reading data will be wisdom which you have the ability to turn tons of information to knowledge, and then use the knowledge to make important decisions.
I really got a lot from the lecture, both on literature and personal values. This positive experience actually makes me think to anticipate next year’s writers’ festival. What do you guys get from the lecture? Do you mind share your piece of thoughts? Hope you guys enjoyed his lecture too!
