Dystopias: You do not know what you have until you lose it.

Firstly let me say how much I love dystopian fiction. I love that the worlds created take elements from our everyday lives and manipulate them to create a world we consider so horrendous. The sad thing is, given the ‘right’ sort of leader and advances in technology, these worlds are a very real possibility. The advances in science and our compliance with less and less privacy makes these totalitarian nightmares closer to reality than we could ever imagine. The more we advance in technology the less unrealistic these novels seem.

So what started my dystopian novel binge? Well…I read ‘The Hunger Games’ last week and it blew my mind! The way little children were being made to fight until the death was not so unlike these reality tv shows where we vote to keep people in the game. Ok…so the people voted off our reality shows do not die, but most of the times the characters and the lives they had before the shows are killed.

I am really tired and trying to type at the moment so I thought I would give you a little to think about and return to this post after a nap.

Nissi x

Buy my ebook ‘Finding Me’ here for only £1.97 – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Finding-Me-ebook/dp/B006VOJQZY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337707049&sr=8-1

Finding Me: The voice behind the Voice (1)

I have grown to believe that writing and identity are inseparable. Whether you are writing a comic, a dystopian novel or a fairytale, I strongly believe that elements of the writers personality will come through either directly or indirectly. The first section of the book ‘Finding Me’ is entitled ‘Paper Pills’ and a lot of the poems take on a sexual nature because being a teenager, a large part of my identity was linked to my sexuality. I had a lot of feelings, new hormones and a general new awareness of myself and the opposite sex that had been alien to me up until my mid to late teens. I wrote about these feelings at the time completely unaware of the journey that was to follow. During the time of writing the poems I had no ambition to publish the words…these were my personal feelings and insights. I had always imagined keeping the diaries and showing them to my husband and kids when I was older. However in my early twenties I looked back over what I had written noticed that there was a progression. The poems were more than lust filled stanzas. Instead I could distinctly hear the voice of a young girl who struggled with who she was. The decision to publish came because I wanted to encourage both young and old people to get used to talking to themselves. Often we go though things that we do not understand. Putting pen to paper is a release and given time, experience and insight we can gain new perspectives.

The words on the written on the paper say one thing but the voice and tone behind the words say another.

Putting together ‘Finding Me’ helped me to see that that there were many layers to myself. I may say one thing or behave in a certain way but the seen is usually related to something unseen. It may seem like some abstract psychological theory but once you start putting pen to paper and pay attention to your heart…something happens. It is interesting to look back on my personal progression and till this date I read some of the poems and they speak to me in new ways. I can be going through something and I find healing in words that when I was writing, caused me so much pain to write.

As a result I have come to the following conclusion: There is a voice behind the voice.

Excerpt from ‘Finding Me’:

You broke me
– I accept that.
Took my heart and separated it:
Let my Insecurities,
Inabilities,
Faults and Tenderness overshadow me
– I felt that
Made me feel so worthless, I grew breathless.
Face soaked in tears,
Heart weeping what I didn’t need but had been built into me over the years
- I needed that.

Nissi Mutale.

Buy the book for 1.97 HERE: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=finding+me+nissi+mutale&x=0&y=0

My book trailer is here!! “The story behind ‘Finding Me’ – Nissi Mutale.”

https://www.youtube.com/v/UxrJguBD8gs

The Artist: poet vs craftsman

There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman. – Emile Zola.
I am often asked how I started writing, why I write poetry and if I think that somebody can be taught how to write. Emile Zola’s quote above calls for an interesting discussion. What is the difference between the poet and the craftsman? Is there a difference?

The way I understand Zola’s words is that the poet has a natural affinity towards his craft; it is something he was seemingly born knowing how to do. Now that is not to say that I do not believe that people can be taught how to write, because they can. However I think that some people are born with a natural ability to be able to play with, craft and use words to create a whole other world. It is like people who can naturally sing versus the person who can only sing because they have been trained to do so. The trained singer just does not sound the same. The notes may be perfect, they understand rhythm and look great on stage but they just do not have it.

However the craftsman has to be taught. It is not a skill that he or she naturally knows how to do. The great thing is the poet also needs training and nurturing of their talents. Hence both the poet and the craftsman exist within the artist. Separating the two leads to shortcomings and I believe less chances of reaching the full potential. As artists we can often go wrong when we believe so much in our natural abilities that we are unwilling to learn from people and be taught how to take our crafts to the next level.

What are your opinions of the artist (writer, blogger, painter, dancer)?

Nissi x

Telling the truth and being a revolutionary.

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. – George Orwell.
I came across the above George Orwell quote and immediately started thinking about the way we communicate now. I used to think of writing as a very genuine and sincere means of communicating. The thought of somebody putting pen to paper and taking the time to think and write with their unique hand, was indicative to me of the value they placed on their words. With the eruption of social media, computers and everything else technological, I no longer place the same value on written words.

Let me make it clear that I absolutely love technology and am a strong advocate of e readers, twitter, facebook and everything else that has lured us. However I am increasingly concerned with the difference between online and offline personas; I do not know if what I am reading has been written genuinely. The social media frenzy has largely got people writing what they think people want to hear or tweeting what everyone else is tweeting so that they can join the “conversation” and be in the know.

I love conversation but what I do not like is deceit. I am often having to stop myself tweeting or posting on facebook just because everyone else is . To “be you” and stay true to what you believe is an increasingly difficult thing to do in our “politically correct” environment.

I want to be a revolutionary truth teller!

Nissi.

Poetry vs Spoken word (performance poetry)

Hello!

Wow it has been sometime. I got caught up on my other blog: www.nissiknows.wordpress.com . I am sorry for the neglect.

Odd intro aside, I have found that people often ask if I perform my poetry and when I say no, the look I get never fails to make me laugh. Now I have been turning this subject over in my head for a number of years and the conclusion I have come to is that performance poetry and spoken word have larger elements of artifice. By the very nature that performance poetry is written to be performed means that certain aspects have been amplified for performance effect and forcefully evoke emotion. Now I know that some people may be reading this are increasingly becoming enraged: nostrils flaring, chest heaving, quickly forming an angry response, but hear me out.

In order to get where I am coming from you must first see poetry the way I do. I personally believe that poetry in its most organic sense is reflections, thoughts and extensions of a human being in deep reflection with themselves. Poetry is an extension of its writer. When I think of poetry I imagine someone sitting quietly at their desk or lying on their bed with pen and paper or finger to keypad putting getting their thoughts out. There is no censorship because they have not necessarily written for an audience – it is an audience of 1. The writer is the reader.

Performance poetry on the other hand has been written to be enacted. I am not saying that the feelings expressed in performance poetry are not authentic – I believe they are. Instead the words and flow have been crafted to be brought alive in front of people. It is written so that people can understand and engage with words that they cannot see. Because the audience cannot see the words, the phrasing needs to explicit and easy to grasp on first hearing.

There is a definite and big difference between performance poetry and written poetry. To say there is no difference is a huge over sight and oversimplification of 2 different art forms.

Nissi.

If you want to work on your art, work on your life. – Chekov.

I love writing and I love singing. I love going through things in life and building a bank of different experiences so that I can talk about them in my works. I love that each and every single day, all that I go through I am thinking about how I can turn that experience into a story; song, poem, short story, novel…anything. Sometimes however I get so consumed in my work I forget how to live. The works I create take on a life of their own and so consume mine that I need to remind myself to live again.

We are quickly approaching a new year and I am thinking about ways I can push and challenge myself. Ways I can step outside of my comfort zone…I’ll keep you posted.

Please do also let me know of anything you have been through or tried that has really changed or challenged you. I love hearing from you guys.

NMx