From the Fiction Desk

Often the power of writing feels godlike from the formation of creativity and the passing of knowledge. It is one of the most powerful medias of sharing our thoughts. They form on the page directly from our minds. From there they fly through the eyes of a reader into their mind. No verbalization was necessary. The power behind the act of putting words on paper to inform, entertain, and evoke a response is in fact a form of telepathy—one that can stretch out across space and time to enter into the minds of readers who may not live in your own country and to generations who will be born long after your body has turned to dust in some coffin. Let me use some examples to demonstrate the power I am referring to. I am going to tear apart my argument step by step.

First, I put before the reader of this blog the philosopher and writer Plato. He wrote in ancient Greek. Let me ask you rhetorically: His philosophy is read in how many languages? How long ago did he live? Is his philosophy still relevant today? Ok, someone may argue that is true for non-fiction, but what of fiction and poetry. With a wolf-like grin, I smile at that question and present to you Beowulf. Written centuries ago, it is an epic poem still read today—still impacting our literature, our arts, and our social conscious of everyone, even if you have not read it or are of an Anglo-Saxon background. The themes can be seen in literature across cultures and across time to even the most modern of stories.

While I have discussed time and space, let me discuss what many people would call a supernatural power of telepathy. What writers have is not ESP, but the drive and ability to put images and thoughts on the page for others to read. This is an act that goes from the writers minds, though their fingers casting those thoughts as magic upon the page (paper or here on the web)—drawing those thoughts into images or condensed powerful words. They are then read, like an element of their existence is to draw a reader to read them. They go from the page through the eyes into the reader’s mind. No voice was heard, unless it is read through an audio-format, I did not have to sit with you to describe what I was thinking. You, the reader received the images, the thoughts, the philosophy and sifted them through your own filter into images you understood and thus we have communication from mind to mind—telepathy in its purest form.

To make the point for anyone who may have a shadow of doubt left, I am going to place here a single sentence from a novel in progress that I am writing. This is the opening sentence to Dark Medicine: “The pale circle of light leapt from the yellow fragile hand drawn map that Ryan Taylor carried with near loving care and the river bluff face he walked along, just managing not to slip into the fishy smelling brown waters of the Missouri River.”

Did you smell the river? Could you see the map and the flashlight? Maybe not exactly as I have seen them in my own mind, and I have not given enough in this one sentence to give you a full image. Nevertheless, you had an image that was somewhere near the one in my mind.

If you are a writer, never let anyone take your ability to this extraordinary gift from you. If you are only a reader, you are the recipients of the world’s knowledge, thoughts, dreams and desires. Carry them with you. Be willing to read what others fear to read. For it is this act of telepathy that gives us the ability to transfer our ideas and our observations to you…to change the world, to dream of what might be, or to escape from the existence you live in to experience something different if only for a moment.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for more information on the articles, blogs, novels, poems, and short stories I am writing.