When I'm working, I'm so narrowly focused on sound, language, rhythm, flow, that I rarely feel the emotion of the text. It's only after - long after - I've finished a piece that I can experience in any way its emotional charge.
Interpretation
The creative process can sometimes obscure the emotional depth of one's work until it is completed.
In this quote, Taiye Selasi reflects on the nature of her artistic process, emphasizing how her intense focus on the technical aspects of writing—like sound and rhythm—can detach her from the emotional resonance of her work. It is only once she steps away from the piece that she can truly appreciate the feelings and emotions embedded within it, highlighting a common experience among artists where the act of creation can lead to temporary disconnection from its emotional impact.
In practice
An author might use this quote during a workshop about the writing process to encourage others about the journey of creating art.
I read recently that the problem with stereotypes isn't that they are inaccurate, but that they're incomplete. And this captures perfectly what I think about contemporary African literature. The problem isn't that it's inaccurate, it's that it's incomplete.
I write essays to clear my mind. I write fiction to open my heart.
I love and admire everyone who is different. I love that. The 'jet set' is banal. 'Good taste' is banal. Eccentricity is chic. Good taste paralyzes. But punk or street fashion or a tattoo-covered body, that is interesting to me, and that I love. I didn't go to fashion school. I learned from watching couture shows on TV and reading magazines. That made me dream.
My dear sister! I’m amazed to discover that you can compose so delightfully. In a word, your Lied is beautiful. You must compose more often.
Know what the old masters did. Know how they composed their pictures, but do not fall into the conventions they established. These conventions were right for them, and they are wonderful. They made their language. You make yours. All the past can help you.
Style ain't nothing but keeping the same idea from beginning to end. Everybody got it.
Bright gem instinct with music, vocal spark.
The two ideas are antithetical. Insofar as photography is (or should be) about the world, the photographer counts for little, but insofar as it is the instrument of intrepid, questioning subjectivity, the photographer is all.
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