Anonymous · 18d
Hello sprout!
I’m the anon that sent you a bunch of questions in one a while ago, about reincarnation and poetry and what not. Just wanted to thank you for how genuine and thoughtful your responses were, though I guess I could have predicted that based on your writing.
If you don’t mind, I have a few more?
1) how prevalent and impactful do you think Kaveh’s guilt is (whether that be in his relationships, how he interacts with the world, his altruism, his work, Etc)
2) Is water wet. Your options: yes, no, waffle
3) if this is even possible, is there a single word you feel most explains your relationship to writing?
P.S thanks for introducing me to God the Whale, it’s enchanting. In return, my current favourite poem is Introduction to quantum theory by Franny Choi.
Thanks for you time again
hello friend!! thank u for sending me those fun questions a while ago, I had so much fun answering. ofc id love to answer more!
- ohhhhh I LOVE exploring guilt so I'd give guilt to Kaveh at the maximum amount. i think it's p clear in his character stories that he feels really really really guilty about his father so a part of his self-sacrificing nature is trying to atone for the mistake he made, and I'd assume that manifests in people pleasing and never saying no and even doing things for people if they don't ask. I remember reading a tweet a while ago that was like "alhaitham's individualism leads to altruism and kaveh's idealism leads to egoism" or something like that which I find really interesting because in a way, all that self sacrificing is done to alleviate a guilt which can be seen as "selfish" not that Kaveh is a bad person at all, but i think that's just an interesting thought. i think kaveh's trying to put as much good in the world as possible because he still feels like he has to make up for existing.
- waffle
- connection was my first thought. i am vehemently opposed to the idea that writing is a lonely art when the whole thing is communicating thoughts, feelings, ideas, moods, through the written word. when i write, it's me trying to recapture experiences and relive them myself because i'm so fond of them (aka all the shenanigans in my college fics) and so when i share it, sometimes people relate to the experience and we're like mentally shaking hands. and also in the literal sense, i've made a ton of friends bc of writing, which i am very grateful for. more rambling: there's this paradox in poetry kinda where it's like "the more specific you get in your poem, the more universal your message will be" because you're trying to recapture a feeling, and you can't capture a feeling if you're not specific with the details that made you feel that way. and even if other people dont relate to the exact details, they'll relate to the feeling. ocean vuong has a quote that goes "writing is a bridge between two people, a bridge made of language" and i whole heartedly agree with it. so even if i'm not necessarily "writing for other people," writing is a way to connect because i'm beaming whatever bullshit is going on in my head out into the rest of the world, and sometimes that connects with other people.
thank you for sharing that poem with me, it was beautiful!! in return: Sorrow is Not My Name by Ross Gay is another one i love
thank u again for ur questions <3
