In 2012 the dramatic changes in my life have caused me to re-evaluate this life and my future. For the first time in my life I am what they call a ‘prolific writer’!
“Literature is born when something in life goes slightly adrift!”
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir was a feminist and existentialist who dedicated her life to writing and learning. Simone was also a prolific writer. Her life was dramatic and changeable at every stage in her career, mainly because of the experiences shared with her long time friend and love of her life; Sartre.
Existentialist philosophical thought believes in the importance of the experience of the individual. In existentialism, the individual begins with the ‘existential attitude’, or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. Sometimes we can all feel the changes beyond our control in life, but it is at these times that a writer can become the most active.
I think Simone knew that it was the very changes and calamities in a writer’s life that generate the creative flow. A static, easy life is no life for a writer. A true writer embraces heartache to give her something new to write about! Maybe it is the dramatic changes in my own life that have induced this new writing frenzy in myself. I imagine that Simone de Beauvoir would nod her head in approval.
