>>> Item number 26946 from WRITERS LOG9403B --- (40 records) ----- <<< Date: Sat, 12 Mar 1994 18:35:02 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: WONDER: "Get A Life!" I haven't been exposed to the influences that have made this phrase some kind of cult cliche in modern America, but... "Get A Life!" what an absurd thing to say, especially to a writer. for better or worse, from birth until now, and for some unpredictable time after, each of us shares the common human tragi-comedy of having a life. no choice in the matter, although some people do try to shortcut the process. but writers usually are readers first. and in that pursuit, they not only have the default one-life-per-customer, they have many, many lives. Whether they be those of Robin Hood, King Arthur, or other olden ones, the more modern madcaps of Catch-22 and its ilk, the flamboyant lives of the romantics, the future fantastic lives of SF, or whatever, readers have so many lives that cats' eyes turn green with envy. And writers. Well, writers have the basics, they also have the manifold realities of the reader, and they add one more dimension to the already rich lives of their days - for writers create lives! Whether it be a moment in a single humdrum life in a short piece or richly textured lives in many times and places, that is the glory of the writer, that they mold the lives that enrich the readers that grow their single life into a medley. "Get A Life!" No thanks, let me give you one instead - I've got plenty to spare. don't go away, I'll be back soon with a story or three... that's why I'm a writer, just one life isn't enough. tink