THE FALL OF LITERATURE AND THE STRUGGLES OF MODREN YOUTH

By Zaziwe M.D

"Why did you stop writing poems love?"

Prelude:
Prof Nyengo Mkandawire, during one of my chinwags with him, stressed that if you have the passion and dream for other things, do them now when you have the youthfulness and energy to do so.

Echoing his words, I say that indeed we can pursue many endeavors and become jacks of many trades. To raise literature from slumber, we need to pluck our writing apparatus from the cellars and start weaving a bit of a sentence, perhaps a paragraph. No power of social chatter should subdue the spirit of a writer, the heart of a poet, the soul of the dancer or the enharmonic timbre of the musical player.

The question above was a difficult question that akuchikazi sent me, surprisingly after the usual good night inter-changes. One thing I should state is that I taught her over the years we have been together to ask difficult questions and she shouldn't settle for less and one of the difficult questions is why. Nonetheless, I warned her to avoid directing to me the difficult questions unless she has failed to provide the answers herself.  In an attempt to address her question, I begun by letting out a reasonable smile followed by a descent giggle. Then I told her the reason why I was on recess regarding poetry.

Writing in this age is very arduous compared to a century ago, get me right here, am not trying to accommodate the laziness that has crippled the art of writing in our youth. Look here, in the era of Sherlock Holmes, Charles Dickens, Ted Hughes, Bertrand Russell and many others, writing then was regarded highly in the society. The writers had an easy-going because they had knowledge that the readership was ready to engage the daily papers and bookshops in order to feed on eyes upon something substantial in the form of either short story, an essay or a short metered poem. The competition was very high and during that period for someone to claim to be a writer, one had to endure quite a lot of criticism from fellow and highly regarded men of pen. It was an era of astounding literature.

Besides their involvement in literature, these ennobled individuals acquired the glory of dancing their minds in other engagements such as debating pertinent issues in their society. This led to formation of one of the known clubs; Oxford Union society. We have had witty minds and illustrious debaters such as Thomas Hobbes, George Bernard Shaw, G.K Chesterton, Oscar Wilde and many others. that graced this earth and offered their expertise in more than one field. Let’s look at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle whose fiction character Sherlock Holmes has been a household name for a century now. Sir Doyle was not only spending his time in his library writing the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. He was a medical doctor by profession and was also involved in various sporting disciplines and politics. To underscore the point, the modern man must appreciate that the 19th and the 20th century writers were multitaskers and they excelled in many field such as economics, medicine, philosophy, psychology and many other difficult fields.

Another factor why we had blossoming of well baked writings was because of the discipline of the authors and the poets. Others may think that there were no distractions like we have in the modern age such she Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp and the Twitter. Well, that may be the case but it is quite obvious that every generation has its own struggles and it is only a few of the individuals that are disciplined and focused that are able to produce something worthwhile in the society. We can talk of Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb, whilst others found comfort in using the kerosene lumps. a writer that who is able to tame the world’s short lived infatuations is likely to go far with his work and eventually reap from his sweat. The writer’s pen must not run dry because of disuse rather the ink must be emptied in the shortest time possible time as the personal anthologies and manuscript amass.

Literature must be resurrected and we are the generation to make that possible. Let the creative brains be put to use. It is needless to say that writing stimulates the mind and it smoothens one’s soul. If you are a writer out there or you are aspiring, do not be let down by the challenges that you may face. Use the impediments as stepping stones in producing brilliant fine works of ink. School shouldn’t be an excuse for one not to be creative. You can be anything you want in this modern age despite the daily struggles. If you find yourself unsure of what to do, write. If you feel stressed and bored, write. Great pieces of written art are produced when one is under pressure and that’s the fuel in engendering excellent work.

About the author:
Zaziwe is a medical doctor recently finished his studies with the college of medicine. Besides practicing medicine, he is a poet, an essayist, short story writer. He also enjoys playing his guitar, graffiti and he is the CFO of Zaziwe Medical Consultancy.