Point to ponder

[avevale_intelligencer]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that no-one will ever be in need of a writer.

Discuss, taking care to distinguish between "need" as we might externally perceive it from our civilised standpoint, and need as it would appear to people whose primary concern is survival.

Comments

Recursion

[inamac.livejournal.com]

Um. Well, if the 'truth universally acknowledged' line hadn't been written by a writer you wouldn't have been able to ask this question.

Though whether you 'needed' to is a whole other kettle of worms.

I rather suspect that the US media industry is finding out right now how much they 'need' writers to survive. Admittedly we are not talking about a subsistence culture in Hollywoodland itself, but they have to get the necessary coffee and stimulants from somewhere.

[braider.livejournal.com]

Of course they need a writer.

Who else is going to be the main course?

[armb.livejournal.com]

You can transmit a lot more survival related information more reliably through writing than through an oral tradition.
Do you ever need a writer of fiction rather than an oral storyteller who can use written non-fiction? Maybe not.

[billroper]

Whether one "needs" a writer or not would depend on where you're hanging out on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, wouldn't it? And, of course, there's a difference between technical writing and creative writing...

[catalana.livejournal.com]

I would say that your first sentence is false - I, for one, do not acknowledge that no one will ever be in need of a writer, hence it is not a universally acknowledged truth.

[(Anonymous)]

"Oh, reason not the need..."

To quote some writer or other....

Michael Cule

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Well, if we're only talking "need" in terms of survival, I can't think of very many professions one might "need."

Doctor, dentist, EMT, firefighter, search-and-rescue worker, police officer maybe. There aren't that many people who work at the bleeding edge between life and death.

Of course, if we count all the people who make it possible for the above people to do their jobs--people making surgical instruments and drugs, people training dentists and EMTs, people fueling firetrucks and helicopters, people growing and preparing food for search and rescue operations... hmm. Pretty soon we're back to needing most people. Including fiction writers, who, IMO give everyone concerned a well-earned sanity break.

[batyatoon]

Um ... before I pick this one up, I want to know just what we mean when we say "people whose primary concern is survival". Everybody's primary concern is survival.

I also want to know if we are defining "writer" as "one who can read and write" or "one who is skillful with words" or both.