Intellectual Passion - A Case For Living Life With Passion & Intellect

"There isn't anything as wonderful as a fierce intellectual person" Arundhati Roy. For the truth to surface, it has always been maintained that a strong separation of intellect from our feelings is required. Any academic or intellectual work that is tainted with emotions or feelings is considered as biased and lack veracity. At least that's what the academics believe.

There is some truth to this, and it is necessary to have this separation to push forth scientific work. But a writer's life is different. In life, art, and literature, emotions and passion cannot be separated from the intellectual rigmarole of the craft or art. It is the very essence of it. Separating emotion would not be a life worth living(and remember, artists consider their work as their life, not a piece of academic work to be analysed and held up as perfect). Give me passion, emotion, love, or give me death.

Even an intellectual like Hitchens, Dawkins & Sagan were passionate about what they wrote and lived with great conviction that what they were doing was the right thing. Of course, with plenty of evidence to support their case. The most amazing people that have ever existed used their intellect with their passion... no separation... no stoic expressions... just life and emotive writing.

A smouldering hearth of ashes
The heat dimly lingers, offering a picture of warmness,
But it is off no use...
no life...
no warmth...
no... this is not life

Life is emotion,
Life is passion,
Life is intellect,
But above all, life is love,

Burn the fire of passion,
Fire of love and compassion,
The warmth returns ever glorious,
My home is mine at last!

Comments

Orwell Made Me Queer

George Orwell(1903-1950) famously known for his work 1984, was a master of the prose. I posit that the words he had written in the opening chapter of Homage to Catalonia stands as a vivid painting of the landscape of a Catalonia swept up by revolutionary fervour. I dare say his description is even more haunting and real than the video documentaries produced on the Spanish Civil War. Here's a short example: "The revolutionary posters were everywhere, flaming from the walls in clean reds and blue that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud. Down the Ramblas( NOTE : La Rambla is a street in Barcelona ), the wide central artery of town where crowds of people streamed constantly to and fro, the loudspeakers were bellowing revolutionary songs all day and far into the night. And it was the aspect of the crowds that was the queerest thing of all. In outward appearance it was a town in which the wealthy classes had practically ceased to exist." Hom...

Homage To Catalonia - Someday I Shall Have Coffee at Huesca

Homage to Catalonia is one of the best(if not the best) wartime accounts from on the the best writer of our times. Serving with the leftist POUM militia(Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista), Homage to Catalonia captures the optimism and idealism of revolutionary Spain. It then explores the mundaneness of trench warfare, which was more like non warfare. The treachery, living in fear of being outed, street fighting in Barcelona all vividly expressed. Even in the humdrum nature of it all, George Orwell writes a captivating account that manages to share with its readers the horrors and poor conditions of those in the front line and the political backstabbing from those that are far away from the actual fighting. A turbulent history of Spanish history with a huge variety of political entities fighting against fascism and against themselves. Homage to Catalonia ends with the hauntingly prescient paragraph in which Orwell expresses his disdain for his fellow En...

I Baulk At The Word Moderation

The word moderation is often thrown about by politicians and the intelligentsia(it is often the politicians though that receive my ire). Malaysia a land of moderates. Moderate politics, moderate Muslims... moderate policies... moderate society. I find it utterly revolting I say. Before I cause you to cringe in confusion, let me first define the word moderation. From dictionary.com: the quality of being moderate; restraint; avoidance of extremes or excesses; temperance. That's all jolly and well. But the word in Malaysia has been twisted into a sick and perverted joke of itself. A vapid excuse for inaction and mediocrity. Let me say that again MEDIOCRITY. Moderation doesn't mean giving way to bullies in for the sake of not 'hurting' their oh so fragile feelings. And it certainly doesn't mean being complacent and satisfied with a placid lifestyle. I've often heard people say way too often and rather glibly that they are a moderate. Which essentially transl...

Random Thoughts Of A Driftwood

Search This Blog