Not All Writers Write In Silence - Op-Ed Piece
I was talking to my buddy the other day and he brought up how he would allow kids to write with their music on.
He is a teacher.
I’m not sure what you think he could have been besides that.
It’s not like he was standing on the side of the road and giving a thumbs up to every kid who walked by.
“That’s okay Sunny. You can leave the music on.”
I stopped, confused at what he said.
Write….
With….
The music…
On..?
That must have been one of those ancient codes I saw in a documentary once, where the guy who came up with the theory is the only one who conveniently knows of the code.
All the actions of one character relate to the character in the story being read, and it is all supposed to be a symbol for something, or complete bullshit. Although that could be the same thing.
When he says “write” he is really talking about “sitting,”
“with” is really the word “down,”
“the music” could mean “on the,”
and “on” could be a reference to the ancient Greek word for “couch.”
So my friend is really telling me how he wants me to sit on the couch but in code.
Yes. Yes. That is what it means because no student in his or her right mind would write with music on.
As in recording words using rules from an established order as another human being says different words at varying volumes. Oh, and there are instruments and other crap as the other person talks in a weird way.
No. No. That’s not right.
This is a joke by my old friend.
He is kidding me.
In a minute, he’ll shake his head and explain how he was just messing with me.
“Come on. No kids write with the music on,” he’d say as I sat down on the couch.
“Of course not,” I’d respond, playing it off like I got the joke.
But I heard no punchline.
Perhaps my friend misspoke. He must have.
That was a slip of the tongue.
Certainly, no child is dumb enough to believe their writing can be at its best, as they play music.
All that teaching has gotten to my friend.
All those lessons, all those detentions, all those school lunches.
They are making him say silly things.
Pretty soon he’ll talk of moon landings and a hollow earth and how this is all a lie.
My friend is losing his mind. That’s all. No big deal.
No. He’s not. (Unfortunately.)
I was wrong.
He assured me that the kids take out their headphones and write their assignments, allowing them to listen to their music as they do it, is the compromise.
And that was when I lost hope in our youth.
Not when they disobeyed their parents and jeopardized the core structure of a healthy household.
Not when they didn’t get a job and rattled an essential component to our economy.
Not when they elected a bad politician and ruined the law of our nation.
No. It’s when they convince themselves that the art of writing could be done without silence.
How do they get a rhythm of the words in their head?
How do they read it to themselves?
Doesn’t this make it harder to edit?
No. It’s all wrong.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Tell me that the moon landing was fake, the earth is hollow, and we live in The Matrix.
Don’t tell me this.
But alas, I am the wrong one here.
Students will tell me that their work doesn’t suffer because they listen to music, as if they have any experience to go back on and I should trust them.
And my friend thinks nothing of it either since the music gets the kids to work.
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Do you write with the music on or in silence? Let us know in the comment section below.
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Greg Luti is an editor and blogger on pensandwords.com. His favorite writers are Robert Frost and Charles Bukowski. He enjoys reading up on history, watching comedies, and playing video games, when he is not writing down a few notes for his next piece. He started this blog out of his love for literature and hopes that the reader shares that same passion.
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