What is Writing to ME

What is Writing

This is a deceptively innocuous question.

 what is writing?

It should have a textbook definition, something you can look up in a dictionary.

Merriam-Webster: 

1. 1:  the act or process of one who writes: asa :  the act or art of forming visible letters or characters; specifically :  handwriting 1b :  the act or practice of literary or musical composition
2. 2:  something written: as

a :  letters or characters that serve as visible signs of ideas, words, or symbols
b :  a letter, note, or notice used to communicate or recordc :  a written composition

1. 3:  a style or form of composition
2. 4:  the occupation of a writer; especially :  the profession of authorship

Urban Dictionary: a kind of love that thats annoying as hell and makes you want to pull your hair out. It keeps you up and night, and it makes you think about the world entirely differently. Its a passion that is unlike any other. It overides everything in your life.

Does this capture writing?

I don't think so.

Writing is an integral part of communication. It is a way in which ideas are passed from one person to another. This often takes place in the form of the written word (though more often than not, that written word is actually a typed word), but it can also be in the form of acting or as a musical composition.

Music captures human emotion in a way that is utterly unique to that medium. It touches the soul in a tangible way, conveying emotion in the most intimate manner possible. 

But writing can be about the words themselves, not just the meaning. The art of calligraphy stems from the beauty of the written word. This tradition can be traced back to the sultans of the Ottoman Empire and their personal Tughra. The Tughra was the signature for the sultan and was created to be elaborate and artistic.

Tughra of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520)

Written language is a relatively new invention, one that Plato was convinced would bring about the end of true knowing. He argued, in his play Phaedrus, that writing information down would produce a false intelligence. That people would think they knew something, but would have to reference back to writing, giving themselves and those around them a sense of knowledge that they did not truly possess.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was what made the difference between form and formlessness, which isn't to suggest that the relationship between form and formlessness isn't a kind of dialogue too, or that formlessness had no words, just to suggest that this particular word for some reason made a difference between them - one that started things.

Ali Smith, Artful

Hasn't technology just exacerbated Plato's fears?

Google is the ultimate reference. 

Can we truly know anything anymore? Must we constantly doubt ourselves until we are reassured by technology that our point was valid? Can we trust anything anyone says? 

Writing, in its most basic form, is a technology that has allowed for an unprecedented level of continuous advancement for the human race. Yet I would argue that it is more than just words on a page. It is a form of communication that takes place in song, in art, in body language. Writing has become an integral cog in the mechanism of human existence.