Monk Writer

Writing is a unique process of communication with its own space. When you write, you are sitting by yourself and delving deep into a subject, following its course as far as time and energy will take you. And then someone else can sit and follow those lines of thoughts for a long time and at great detail. This is very different from conversation, where you are interacting with someone else, picking up on various cues, with the subject and focus veering off in accordance with the persuasiveness, intensity, and interest of the given participants. And the oral histories might change with a little more variability and frequency than something that is written down, though you do have to figure in interpretations and criticism and institutional influences and so on. Doubtless, the written word has had a dramatic effect on the course of human civilization.