Sunday, March 09, 2014

girls, girls and words.......


I’ve spent the best part of the past week binge watching seasons one and two of Girls. A party I’m well past fashionably late to. But a party I’m quite happy to have gate crashed nonetheless. Despite watching all twenty episodes, it is episode one that I keep returning to. Or perhaps more specifically a scene within episode one. 

You know the one I mean, right? When Lena Dunham’s Hannah tells her parents that she may be the voice of her generation, or a least a voice of her generation? It’s not Hannah’s steadfast belief in her storytelling ability that sticks with me, it’s the simple notion that for the goal of writing to be serious, you must aim to be the voice of your generation. You cannot simply write, you must write the best prose ever to grace the page, or in the case of my generation - the website. You cannot just be happy with mild success, or even rampant success, you cannot be happy with a little monetary return or even a lot - you must be THE VOICE. 

When Hannah makes that statement to her stunned parents I feel an empathy for her, because I often find myself in situations where I’m forced to justify my choice to make writing my life and career. As if making a choice to use words, as opposed to medical instruments or law books, is less valid or not as important? Am I projecting onto a character in a television show? Probably, but I wonder if that is the magic of the psychology of television. Does seeing some part of you in a character on the screen give your life and choices and decisions some perspective, some support, some weird justification? Or am I just making all this shit up?

Anyway, here's to Girls and Lena Dunham and writing and binge television watching and being fashionably late to parties. And here's to not being anyones voice, except your own. 

kb xx