Literature
_AM: The power of a poem is the manifestation of the idea through the verb, it is the taking of action to capture something, make it come true. A poem is a code that unites vibrations called words, which are made up of concepts, ideas and intentions. These, when combined, have the same effect that, in alchemy, is produced by the melting of chemical elements. Three syllables like “hydrogen-oxygen-hydrogen” will form the word Water. The combination of 4 words such as Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen, rhyming with a fifth which is Phosphorus, create the poem of Life. The correct choice of words in a poem is the summary of existence.
_I: That's why they are so complicated to understand, or tedious for common reading. They require intellectuality, knowing how to read between the lines, and are generally exhausting, elaborate, with so much magic that they become incomprehensible, unattainable.
_AM: Its objective is to be interpreted by those who see beyond words, who see ideas with the heart, who feel in coherence with every part of their being. A poem is a scribble of absurdities for a logical mind, a poem is beauty for those who see from the heart, a poem is a spell for those who lived in the religious structure, a poem is a weapon for those who fight in a revolution, a poem It is magic for those who understand alchemy, a poem is knowledge for the wise man, a poem is information for the intellectual, a poem is technology for the manifestor. Its interpretation is infinite depending on your gaze, depending on your consciousness.
_I: Sometimes you need more details… Go deep, word by word…
_AM: This takes us out of the data, and places us in the experience.
_I: In other words, a transformation occurs, as if we said that a poem is the algebra that allows the existence of computing, but then it is necessary to develop computers capable of processing it.
_AM: In addition to the thousands of applications, programs, platforms and systems that arise from this information mathematics.
_I: This is how simple but complex numbers such as 0 and 1 in systems programming become colors, shapes, what we see.
_AM: This is how the poem becomes a story, and the story, spoken or written, becomes Literature.
_I: Literature is the extension of the poem?
_AM: Many could say that, speaking of the different arts, literature and poetry make up the same art. But we could consider that it has other characteristics beyond verses and meter: literature is intellectual and beautifully free, in something you call “prose.” This word is the Latin contraction of “pro-versus”, meaning that it goes beyond the verse, that is, it has a continuous movement in a straight line. Poetic verse is based on a meter, like music and colors, but in prosaic verse, the verb is humanized through the narrative resource.
_I: Tell a story… Tell something…
_AM: That's right, for which an established metric is not necessary, although, as you can imagine, every literary narrative usually also has its sacred trinity.
_I: Which one is it?
_AM: “Beginning, Middle and End.” The first story-telling took place around the fire of a bonfire, where the elders told their experiences to the young, who waited attentively to hear the exploits of their elders so they could follow in their footsteps. Each narrative was a story that allowed learning, a kind of school of life. Every story began with a description of the circumstance, of a context that led to the discovery of a conflict, a knot, where the lines of the narrative become more complex and keep the listener expectant and attentive to the narrative thread. The listener's interaction could be sought through questions or exclamations that nourished the story by opening side paths; even going so far as to use “flashback” (retrospective scene) or “flashforward” (scenes forward) resources. This freedom that literature allows enriches the stories to nourish with greater strength the outcome of the problem, the resolution. Normally, the end of a story sought to show the educational tool, what we call a moral, a kind of moral that explains the pros and cons of our actions.
_I: Everyone can tell stories, because they have greater freedom.
_AM: Although not everyone knows how to count them. The only regulation of a story is to follow its sacred trinity, but at the same time, maintain an engaging tone, in which every certain number of paragraphs or sentences, something happens that drives the reader or listener to want to continue knowing more. The surprise effect makes the viewer experience the emotions in his body as if it were his own experience.
_I: That's why you said before that Literature takes us from data to experience, because while the poem focuses intellectual attention on concepts, literature makes us experience every detail.
_AM: It is not the same to say: “Warm in colors, plenty in lovers”, as it is to say: “The garden was in an emerging spring state, where both trees and bushes were shining with new sprouts; while those fleshy plants timidly let the buds of their flowers peek out in the soft whisper of a breeze, the cherry trees blushed with warm pinkish tones, which attracted hundreds of arthropods in love with their colors: bees, butterflies, spiders, ladybugs and ants , who caressed its shoots with the affection of a seductive lover, pollinating the garden, dressing it in spring.
_I: The detail makes the difference…
_AM: The magic of poetry means that the initial phrase can be interpreted in many ways, I can already be talking about a cherry tree, or about a woman, or about a machine, about a car, about the Earth, or about a dress. … The simplicity of a code frames endless possibilities according to the internal world of its reader or listener. However, literary prose has the luxury of describing exactly what it wants to convey, with the aim of leading the viewer to live the experience of the speaker or writer as their own.
_I: But it's not like any writing... Because, it's not easy either.
_AM: Literature is the product or act of what is inscribed, marked, engraved on stone or paper (from the Greek “diphthera”). Its greatest quality and distinction from other types of texts or speeches is its aesthetic and intellectual value. The words should be descriptive, helping the reader not only to feel part of the narrative, but to feel the emotions that occur when being part of it. Literature manages to transport the person who receives the story to a fictional world in which he or she inevitably becomes the one who narrates the story or the protagonist of it. He relates to the environments, to the conflicts, and makes a parallel with his own life, in which he understands himself as a necessary participant. Because the protagonists have no face, one can place themselves in any role they like.
_I: And live the story, and even... I imagine, bring it to real life, to action.
_AM: And this is where I wanted to get. Taking literature into action is what you know as Acting. The stories that mobilize people must precisely be set in motion, and individuals, seeking to see their ideas in action, take them to the manifestation of the senses, transcending the oral and written aspect, towards the physical and emotional interpretation of the text.
_I: The theater.
_AM: As I once told you, Theater means “place of vision”, where one goes to observe (from the Greek “thea” = vision, and “tron” = place, space). Theater not only emerged as a staging of literature by those who needed to experience what was written or narrated, but it was also born as a response to popular illiteracy, in which, because they did not know how to read, they should not be exempt from knowledge. . Thus, the theater was the place where people came freely to see and listen to what was written and they did not know how to read.
_I: Oh, so theater is a necessary part of Literature.
_AM: We all have stories to tell, we all have a beginning, a middle and an end in our lives, because life is a story of constant beginnings, middles and endings. And we all act, we all take these experiences and their intentions for their outcome into action. We all put on masks to act in specific circumstances and contexts, we are all observed by someone who admires us, we all interact in conflicts that we must resolve, and we begin paths that inspire a second part in our story.
_I: That is to say, that our personalities are the attributes and defects of the protagonist that we are, who is living a narrative, which seems mundane from unconsciousness, but which can become literature from consciousness...
_AM: Because our own experiences can be useful to others who seek to be inspired by the stories of those who have lived through them. Have you seen how difficult it is to know the lives of your ancestors because you don't have their stories? When you need to know the narrative of your life, many pages are blank, considering that what one lives is not important, when perhaps for those who will come later, my stories, their knots and outcomes, will be the keys to the beginning of the his.
_I: What do you recommend, then?
_AM: That little by little, and without fear, you write your story, your beginnings, your conflicts and your resolutions, that you narrate your exploits, feats, no matter how minimal they may be. Everyone has something to tell, and there is always someone looking to hear that story.
_I: “Plant a tree, write a book, have a child”…
_AM: The three things everyone should do before they die. A tree will leave in your place all the oxygen that you have consumed in your time, as payment for life, returning what you have taken from it in order to live. Having a child could in turn carry out and complete a life project. And of course, write a book, even if it takes you years to do it, even if it only has 30 pages or thousands of them, write your story, or write the story that is born from yours. Leave a mark, because literature is the way we mark the steps that inspire others.
_I: Writing a book was what I always considered my “Great Inheritance”, that's why I called everything I started writing about my life that way…
_AM: And so you will continue. Surrender to eternity through the lines that describe your path through time and space.
_I: I am a Writer of my own story… Actor of my own work.
_AM: “Writing is the painting of the voice” (Voltaire).