CANDLELIT CHRONICLES: HISTORIC HAUNTS

Reading and Writing Divergently: Out of the Comfort Zone

Blog City for April 5 2019:





Sherwood Anderson said, "I think the whole glory of writing lies in the fact that it forces us out of ourselves and into the lives of others."


Do you agree with his assessment of writing? Let's take it one step further, as a writer we step into other lives (our characters) does writing help us be more tolerant in real life or less because we look at things differently than a non-writer.





As a Reader and as a Writer, I am able to step out, to leave my comfort zone, and to surpass the impossibilities of my own life--by that I mean that I can do whatever I cannot do in this life in this physique. As an example, say I wanted to be an Astronaut, or a Rocket Scientist, or an expert Mycologist: I can do these through Reading, and I can also achieve these through Writing.





But more to the point of the Sherwood Anderson quote:


Reading divergently (meaning here reading about any aspect of personality or character or nationality or ethnicity or religion or anything else that "I am not") means I can LEARN. That is the most important victory of all.