June 2, 1985-San Antonio Express-News

What a writer should write

Writers write what they feel needs expressing - and columnists are no exception to such a need. At least not this colmnist.

Often friends, passers-by and notoriety-seekers get the notion that they can be the arbiters for what should be written.

Sometimes they coyly, yet strongly, suggest the topics one should write about. Such notions, I once felt, were the exclusive domain of book readers.

I have been made aware that such is not solely the case. Recalling the publication of my first book, with much of its content centered on El Paso, the book caused a few childhood friends to call on me.

"Ricardo," Pochis told me, "I liked your book, but it did not really deal with our reality."

Like most concerned writers, I strove then to explain to my friend that the book was a filtering of reality through my own way of looking at the world, that it had more to do with my perception than with his particular experiences.

He became angry and demanded that I write a sequel that would encompass his "real" definition of life and his perspectives on meaning.

My response then was to tell him, in all sincerity, that if he wanted to read a book about his experiences that truly mirrored his existence and its accoutrements, he would just have to write it himself.

He was miffed and declared that he would if he could but that he was not a writer, and it was my responsibility to provide him with a worldview to his liking.

After an hour or so of bantering and not being able to reason with him or caring to appease him, I simply wrote him a short, ribald poem that further displeased him.

New ideas

Similar things have been said to me within the past couple of weeks. A few persons shared pet peeves and demands with me.

That is fine with me. I welcome arts ideas and news to explore and write about. I solicit them from all corners. Yes, do let me know what is happening when, where, how, why, and by whom.

Just do not tell me, friends and foes alike, how I should treat the information, the slant to be taken, nor the rationale as to why I must write about any particular thing.

The artist and writer have certain rights, and those rights are simply the right to target something for expression, defining the event in terms of one's sensitivity and knowledge, and then expressing it in one's own idiom.

Art and life

Taking those rights to heart, it has been my intention to look at my world and write about it. I am moved by seeking positive images that are hidden by the thick veneer of negativism in modern society. There are already too many cynical and jaded stories and poems proliferating in our technical world.

This, by no means, should be taken as an unwillingness on my part to explore those areas of corruption and/or mediocrity in the arts. No, it simply means that my penchant at this moment is to live, explore and express those ideas and ideals that course their way through my consciousness.

If art means anything to me, it is that understanding of life that affirms the joy of existing as a thinking and feeling creature. It is a concelebration with other thinking beings, a commemoration that cuts through the sleaze, slime and pain confronting humanity at too many junctures in modern society.

Yes, there is racism, and it is still rampant. There is exploitation on many levels, as well as self debasement. There are senseless suicides, defoliation, oppression, poverty, ignorance and many other arbitrary ills afflicting both the person and society.

There is also that moral cowardice displayed by many so called artists who refuse to comment on the human condition.

Many are the ills, but just as many - if not more - are the moments of beauty and meaning created and shared by artists. Heroic efforts in the face of societal abjectness.

If we look around us, we shall see examples of poets, musicians, artists and dancers who diligently work at their craft, striving to perfect their message and aesthetic.

Heroic, I say, because the message we usually perceive is one of "go for the money and not the art."

An artist's work is best created alone, with only one's mind as the final arbiter. It is a personalized statement about the world the artist inhabits, and it is made in order to make sense of the world, not to please anyone else.

It is not a product from an assembly line nor is it a version of life distilled through another's nervous system. It is that artist's sensibility struggling with definition.

If the artist is seeking out a new venue for expressing his idea(l) of the human condition, it is that artist's prerogative.

I am willfully seeking those art forms that bespeak the human will to make life a celebration. Bleak images, to me, are distortions of meaning - not purposeful statements on life!

I search for positive images for my column - not for juicy gossip or for ammunition with to carry off a barracuda attack just for the sake of it.

The purpose of art is to strive for some human truth, express it in a way that betters our human condition and celebrate life via art. It is not a roseated view, but my realization that beauty can be a defense from the madness of a nuclear age.

I am taking the time to smell the flowers in order to continue creating without the fear of always being on the lookout. Life, like art, must be appreciated.