writing, i mean reading. no, both.

i was thinkin' about my discussion with ces-mad and hasif the other day. we were talking about writing. about how this country really lacks of good writers. hasif was telling us about how difficult it was once for him to manage a literary journal. the harderst part is always to find good writers. there are bunch of writers out there. but many of them are simply persons who write -- not "writer" in the sense of "author". this is not only the case in prose or literary critiques, but also in poetry. hasif mentioned to us his experience as an editor for poems in a leading newspaper's culture page. it was painstaking: the authors are just the same persons taking turns over and over again. no matter how hard you try to motivate your readers to start writing, you end up requesting the same authors to hand in their other pieces for the next issues. many times, hasif had to use his own pieces -- himself is a writer and a literary critic. he did received bundles of pieces requesting for publication. ninety percent are craps.

ces and i shared his concern. i think this problem is pervasive: not only in literary but in all media. i told them, even kompas and tempo, the two leading media are now in their lowest quality levels as far as editings are concerned. pick one. pick one news at random. read. you find a typo already? or grammatical errors? they even publish rubbish. on televisiontoo: everyday we consume junk news (many times, buying those pirated dvd's and enjoying them instead of watching the news on tv, will leave you more enriched). radios are the same.

but ces, hasif, and me agreed; this problem has it's twin sister. reading problem. i always believe, those who can write well cannot be the ones who seldom read. i remember one day when i was still in journalism mood, back in the college years. i was invited as a speaker to a session in a journalistic training in the department of letter. they asked me to give a talk on how to write well -- journalistic-wise. i had told them: you can't teach people how to write well (and i have no idea myself, how to write well). i asked them to slightly change the topic into "how to write effectively". they didn't want to change it ("the training kits has been distributed" -- ah well). so i told them: ok then, but no paper to be handed out. they insisted: i had to present a paper. so there i went. with a paper. there was only one word in the whole paper: R-E-A-D.

but i should admit. reading too much can be dangerous. (ces and hasif seconded me). the more you read the more confident you are about some issue you want to elaborate on. but, you'd better stop somewhere before you realize you know... nothing. now we can understand why some writers fade, just after they have been so good. (or, to make me feel better: there are persons who never even reach the "good-part-one" level and somehow want to think they have, and then think they are in the state of knowing-too-much-hence-know-nothing. we were afraid we are in this set). only very few writers can write well all the time. (well, maybe not. change "all" to "most of"). we were talking about mas goen. he's the first candidate we would list in that rarest-breed-of-writers-list. and hasif told us: even gm sometimes admits, writing is damn difficult.

and writing this is one way to learn, i guess?

arrgh.