Writing as the Finest Form of Telepathy

“I’m riding in the backseat of a VW Vanagon and situated at the extreme left. Some lucky dude is squeezed into the scrawny space between me and another guy who is roughly my size. I use the phrase “squeezed” because there’s barely any wiggle room spared between seats. This takes it out on the knees thrust into the metal which shores up the backrest of the seats.

This fella is one tall son of a gun who just got his butt stuck in a tight spot (pardon the pun). Tucked away underneath this same seat is a medium-sized speaker and blaring loud music. The sound is all out of joint and effectively multiplies the drama...”

I just sent a picture directly from my mind to yours. And for the space of two to three minutes I made you hear my thoughts and see my dreams. I bet you saw the tall guy and tried to imagine him squirm in discomfort between the seats, trying and failing to find succor for his aching knees. You probably, winced as the jagged sounds poured through the blown-out speakers into your ears. On that one score, I have achieved my goal as a writer.

 

The level of telepathy transmitted through the craft of writing beats what is obtainable in any other form of art by a wide margin. In writing, all you have and grapple with are several letters lumped up together to fill a blank surface. No wonder a great writer once said, “Writing is an act of faith.” How true that saying becomes when we weigh the options under the light of thought transference—when we consider how much responsibility is thrust upon the reader’s shoulders, in other words. There’s an English proverb that goes like this, “Quick believers need broad shoulders” same applies to passionate readers.

Readers are trusted or entrusted to read the writer’s mind correctly and give appropriate interpretations without any interference from the writer. It’s the writer saying to the reader in other words, “I absolutely have faith in your discretion.” “Over to you, I trust your judgment.” And you know the amazing about this gig? It works 99.9% of the time as writer-reader minds intervolve and spit out a more refined universe.

“We were walking along the boardwalk in Ocean Park one summer evening, arm in arm, my friend Sid and me, when he saw a familiar sight on one of the benches just ahead, not far from the surf.”

Tell me you didn’t hear the sound of the waves crashing in on the beach or see the foam bubbling up in the wake of the breakers. It’s okay, go ahead and lie you didn’t feel the chill of the wind coming in off the ocean to the shore. And how about the vivid image of the narrator as he strolls leisurely, his pal by side as both men take in the scenery? With those few lines of words you’ve just been given a peek into the mind of a genius. The clip you just read is from a Ray Bradbury short story, “Tête-À-Tête.” A fine story that’s short on narrative prose but long on engaging dialogue. Any fan of the great writer will agree it’s what he’s known for and praised for.

But writing is in itself magic and the wonderful thing about it is that we need not do a thing to acquire the powers. We are born to operate naturally on this level of telepathy and nothing in this world can compare with it.

Keep your pens bleeding.

Akpan