Welcome to A Lotus Girl blog today, in The Curse of Writing: Inside the Minds of Writers post, we are going to review one of the memoires written by Bernard Pivot, a great French writer. Let's start by asking the next question: Do the words control the writer or does the writer control the words? The writer Bernard Pivot has an interesting answer to this question in his book “Help! "I was devoured by words." According to Pivot, whoever thinks that words were created to serve writers and readers and satisfy their curiosity and whims is wrong, but writers are in the service of words. Likewise, he who thinks that writers are the kings over the people of words is wrong. They are nothing but paper tigers, with no power at all. They are accompanied with words and immersed in words, those little monsters that Pivot likened to spiders because they sometimes remain still and at other times climb the walls, crawling out of their nests.
The French writer also says, “Yes, of course, we taste sentences.” We enjoy texts. We drink the sayings. We devour books. We stuff ourselves with words. Reading and writing increase nutrition. But the truth is completely different: it is the words that bite us, it is the structure of sentences that chews us. It’s the rules that eat us up. It is books that devour us.” “What are biographies, novels, memoirs, and newspapers other than absorbing and digesting the life of a man or a woman?”
Writing talent
Pivot adored words , believing that they were what motivated him to live, but they made him suffer the most difficult struggle in his life as a writer, which was choosing the most appropriate words. This process was arduous, tiring and exhausting. So that he considered that only a great writer could choose from among the many and abundant words the most appropriate word in order to give it some meaning, magic, power and beauty. He called it “talent.” The choice of words created many concerns and thoughts for Pivot, so he wondered what he would say if he had been born to speak miraculously! He began to imagine how much fame he would gain for having been uttering words since birth, such that he would be surrounded by journalists, some of whom asked him: “Aren’t you afraid that by speaking from such a young age, won’t you have anything left to say later?”
Writing maze
Women and flirting with them also presented him with a confusing puzzle, and there were no words that would satisfy them. In addition, Pivot prepared three sentences from which to choose his last words on his deathbed, considering them among the most important words in the writer’s life. And this is not the end. The writer showed a unique sense of humor during the book, especially in the last chapter, when Pivot began writing a scenario for what he would say to God after death, as if the words did not have mercy on him even when he moved to the afterlife.
The purpose of words
This reality resulted in a tragedy: the difficulty of sharing and explaining the writer’s struggle with words, which included the lack of sleep that Pivot suffered at nights due to the sounds of words messing with his mind, asking him if they were the right ones, in addition to the disappointment of the white paper and the philosophical meaning of the point at the end of the sentence, with people who consider words as ways of living and communicating, not the purpose itself of living.
Pivot also views words and books as rational, living, breathing creatures with a certain character. This is what he has known since childhood. When he was a child studying the French language, he noticed that words are like “sheep, always living and moving in flocks“. However, some of them are naughty goats or heifers that refuse to stick in the writer’s mind so that he can preserve them. As for the books, they were like snails in Pivot’s view, “descending from the ceilings to settle on shelves and tables and surrounding people because they did not like the company of libraries. Thus it was increasing its colonies as the writer grew old, advancing slowly under the pretexts of civilization and progress…”
We must not forget to mention how many times evil characters have emerged from the pages of books that their owners thought they had closed to haunt Pivot in his nightmares, as if they knew that he was a writer and blamed him beside all the writers for their miserable existence in books. Until the day came when he made the decision to remove all books and novels from his bedroom!
The power of words
Finally, Pivot knew the power of the influence of words. Some of them “sanctify and bless, while others kill“. Since words surround us everywhere, they have the beauty of what they represent, such as the names of flowers, birds, and others… But the French writer also warned of prohibited words, such as the words freedom or democracy, which could cause the death of those who say them.
When Pivot devoted a page to thanking his supporters and assistants in his book, he did not forget to thank the words.
Who is Bernard Pivot?
“Bernard Pivot ; 5 May 1935 – 6 May 2024) was a French journalist, interviewer and host of cultural television programmes. He was chairman of the Académie Goncourt from 2014 to 2020.”
Read more about Bernard Pivot:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Pivot
Thank you for reading.
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