I was elated at first to have joined Blogcritics Magazine – “the community of readers and writers from around the globe.” And my first three articles, published as promptly as possible in spite of my problems with the interface, have only confirmed the experience. The response was phenomenal, the discussion most spirited and of the highest quality, as was a sense of commitment to issues and causes. Never before have I run into such an enthusiastic and high-minded audience on my own Weblog or elsewhere, and my hopes were soaring. Then I realized the grim reality of it all: most, if not all, of the feedback had come from fellow writers and bloggers like myself. Which brings me to my question — who and where are the readers?
Don’t get me wrong. There’s much to be said for the community of one’s peers, especially in arts and all creative endeavors, and I appreciate it immensely. I really do! We all need reinforcement from time to time, a form of sustenance, a reason to keep on going. Apart from friendships which get formed, there is also a sense in which all works of art are individual responses to another fellow artist: a poem is but a response to another poem. And it’s no different, I suppose, with fiction, visual arts or musical compositions: they all feed one upon the other, provide the artist with the raw material and data, stimulate his or her creative juices and, generally speaking, facilitate the process. In fact, that’s how traditions and schools of art are born, each evolving from one another. So on and so forth.
We all stand on the shoulders of our predecessors, and it’s a good thing. It provides for a sense of continuity and connection with the past which otherwise would have been lost as generations come and go. But having said all that, the question remains — where is the audience? For ultimately, each and everyone’s aim and aspiration — their sacred duty, in fact — is to reach out. In the absence of that, we're useless! A poet in the true sense of the word (and I’m speaking here loosely, including all art forms in the fold) is “a maker” — a maker of new worlds and vistas, a creator of sorts, a true visionary. This is why Plato had gone to inordinate efforts to banish all such, Homer included, from The Republic. It was a dangerous breed as far as he was concerned. A poet was the disruptor of peace, harmony, and the status quo. He or she threatened the stability of polis, the city-state.
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