{"id":267,"date":"2012-10-26T06:10:29","date_gmt":"2012-10-26T06:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/?p=267"},"modified":"2012-10-26T06:10:29","modified_gmt":"2012-10-26T06:10:29","slug":"the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/","title":{"rendered":"The Blank Page as a Petri Dish for Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Essayist Arthur Krystal on why writers are often\u00a0smarter on the page than in conversation<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[W]riters don\u2019t have to be brilliant conversationalists; it\u2019s not their job to be smart except, of course, when they write. Hazlitt, that most self-conscious of writers, remarked that he did not see why an author \u201cis bound to talk, any more than he is bound to dance, or ride, or fence better than other people. Reading, study, silence, thought are a bad introduction to loquacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounds right to me. Like most writers, I seem to be smarter in print than in person. In fact, I am smarter when I\u2019m writing. I don\u2019t claim this merely because there is usually no one around to observe the false starts and groan-inducing sentences that make a mockery of my presumed intelligence, but because when the work is going well, I\u2019m expressing opinions that I\u2019ve never uttered in conversation and that otherwise might never occur to me. Nor am I the first to have this thought, which, naturally, occurred to me while composing. According to Edgar Allan Poe, writing in\u00a0Graham\u2019s Magazine<\/em>, \u201cSome Frenchman\u2014possibly Montaigne\u2014says: \u2018People talk about thinking, but for my part I never think except when I sit down to write.\u201d I can\u2019t find these words in my copy of Montaigne, but I agree with the thought, whoever might have formed it. And it\u2019s not because writing helps me to organize my ideas or reveals how I feel about something, but because it actually creates thought or, at least supplies a Petri dish for its genesis.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Essayist Arthur Krystal on why writers are often\u00a0smarter on the page than in conversation: [W]riters don\u2019t have to be brilliant conversationalists; it\u2019s not their job to be smart except, of course, when they write. Hazlitt, that most self-conscious of writers, remarked that he did not see why an author \u201cis bound to talk, any more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misc"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Blank Page as a Petri Dish for Thought<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Essayist Arthur Krystal on why writers are often\u00a0smarter on the page than in conversation: riters don\u2019t have to be brilliant conversationalists; it\u2019s not\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Blank Page as a Petri Dish for Thought\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Essayist Arthur Krystal on why writers are often\u00a0smarter on the page than in conversation: riters don\u2019t have to be brilliant conversationalists; it\u2019s not\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Joe Carter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-26T06:10:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/files\/2012\/10\/blank_page.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joe Carter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Joe Carter\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/\",\"name\":\"The Blank Page as a Petri Dish for Thought\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-26T06:10:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-10-26T06:10:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/#\/schema\/person\/a1e7d33ba803146cf80021b9fbb6de9a\"},\"description\":\"Essayist Arthur Krystal on why writers are often\u00a0smarter on the page than in conversation: riters don\u2019t have to be brilliant conversationalists; it\u2019s not\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Blank Page as a Petri Dish for Thought\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/\",\"name\":\"Joe Carter\",\"description\":\"Culture | Religion | Politics\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/#\/schema\/person\/a1e7d33ba803146cf80021b9fbb6de9a\",\"name\":\"Joe Carter\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/143f1058baa62aff2caae683b130c4ca?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/143f1058baa62aff2caae683b130c4ca?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Joe Carter\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/author\/jcarter\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Blank Page as a Petri Dish for Thought","description":"Essayist Arthur Krystal on why writers are often\u00a0smarter on the page than in conversation: riters don\u2019t have to be brilliant conversationalists; it\u2019s not","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Blank Page as a Petri Dish for Thought","og_description":"Essayist Arthur Krystal on why writers are often\u00a0smarter on the page than in conversation: riters don\u2019t have to be brilliant conversationalists; it\u2019s not","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/","og_site_name":"Joe Carter","article_published_time":"2012-10-26T06:10:29+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/files\/2012\/10\/blank_page.jpg"}],"author":"Joe Carter","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Joe Carter","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/","name":"The Blank Page as a Petri Dish for Thought","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-10-26T06:10:29+00:00","dateModified":"2012-10-26T06:10:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/#\/schema\/person\/a1e7d33ba803146cf80021b9fbb6de9a"},"description":"Essayist Arthur Krystal on why writers are often\u00a0smarter on the page than in conversation: riters don\u2019t have to be brilliant conversationalists; it\u2019s not","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/2012\/10\/the-blank-page-as-a-petri-dish-for-thought\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Blank Page as a Petri Dish for Thought"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/","name":"Joe Carter","description":"Culture | Religion | Politics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/#\/schema\/person\/a1e7d33ba803146cf80021b9fbb6de9a","name":"Joe Carter","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/143f1058baa62aff2caae683b130c4ca?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/143f1058baa62aff2caae683b130c4ca?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Joe Carter"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/author\/jcarter\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/joecarter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}