If life gives you lemons

Paper 1 Final: Unalienable Rights

     Authority is the ability to state or do something and is valid to the community. Dr. David Bartholomae presents authority as a prerequisite to academic writing. He states in his article “Against the Grain”, “When I write I find I am appropriating authority form others while trying to assert my own” (21). This authority is established from other authors. Bartholomae makes it a requisite that authority be given to students to write. That it comes from scholars - but in this essay it is broadened to teachers as well. The teachers hold the authority and then give it to students. So, naturally, students have no authority unless given by their teachers. Only then, it is borrowed, and once the paper is done, authority is turned back to the teacher. This is the way that students become writers.

     What?! Bartholomae tells me that in order to write I need permission from someone to do so? If authority in writing is needed, where do we get the authority from? Does it come from ‘Academics’ who have spent years studying good writing and then through many years and tests allow the young writers to begin to write on their own without supervision? Does authority come from the popular writers, who wrote and everyone loved? Therefore they are the ones who allow for writing to continue? But then, how did they gain permission to begin writing?

     Of course, authority comes from a piece of paper a writer receives from an accredited institution. Once this piece of paper is obtained it is our license to write.

     O Golly, I only hope one day that I may gain my license from any of the ways you told me; so that I may begin to contribute to the world of writing.

     I find the idea that writing can only be done on someone else’s authority to be derogatory to the idea of writing itself. David gets his authority from past authors and professors. David tells us that authority in its nature can only come from others and you only have as much authority as others give you. They in turn gain their authority from previous authors. This chain continues onward and onward and onward, correct? Wrong! It has a beginning; somewhere there was that solitary man who wrote without the influence of others. This man wrote and shared his thoughts. Who gave him authority to share his opinions? I dare say no one gave him any permission to write. He wrote. So why am I any different?

     But there is a process to help us in today’s world, not that ancient realm. In the world of writing there is a continent called Scientific Writing. This continent is far away from where we live. It has many countries like psychology, biology, chemistry, math, etc. Each country has many explorers discovering more about that country. Each explorer has to leave from where we live (the continent of Life Writing) to get there. They write, and explain to the rest of the world what that country has to offer. However, there are false explorers. These explorers have either never been to the country or do not know how to explore it properly. They write and the rest of us who have never been there assume that there is a mountain range that leads to a river of gold (e.g. the world is flat). So this discovery is passed around by the rest of us, and we believe. At this point the other explorers let us know that what was previously written is false and the mountain range actually leads to a river of silver (e.g. the world is round). We are confused why the first explorer deceived us. Well, after many years of false explorers we decided that in order to trust an explorer they need to prove that they know how to explore and that they’ve been to the country. So the PhD passport was created to let the rest of us know that we may believe what these explorers write.

     Okay, but let us return to the continent that we all live in, the continent of Life Writing. This huge continent is really just a large country with many states. Each state has a different name: Essay, Fiction, Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction, Personal Essay, etc. But they have one thing in common: every state deals with the individual, with life. It is a continent/country where human opinions, thoughts, and observations of humans exist. While each state has its own rules that we must abide by, they all have this in common: we are all citizens of this country. The only passport we need is that of existing. We are allowed to write our experiences and opinions. Depending on the state that we’re in, we may write it differently, but we are allowed to write.

     Writing is our given right. I will not accept that I am not allowed to express my opinions and that they hold no validity because I did not live long enough on my continent. I will not accept the idea that my ideas on the world are not valid because I have yet to receive the passport to get into my own country. Where are they going to send me if I refuse to get a passport to the continent I was born in? I argue that as long as we think, and we can place our thoughts into written form: we are allowed to do so. This will allow others to read our thoughts and determine if they like what we write and accept it.

     Now the idea of people accepting what we write is completely different. They may like what you write and they may not like it at all. If you want to be accepted and influence their ideas, you must pass the initiation and become accepted by them, and that includes getting your passport.

     But you can still write, and you’re ideas/opinions/stories are just as valid as the writers with the PhD passport. I can tell you that the explorers - the writers with a PhD passport - learned from explorers who didn’t hold a PhD passport. Take Sigmund Freud for example. He received his PhD passport for the countries of chemistry and physics. He however, decided to cross the border into the country of psychology; resided as an illegal alien; then developed theories of how the human brain worked. He introduced the idea of psychoanalysis. Later his theories were disputed by others like H.J. Eysenck, but Freud provided a springboard for their research. The ‘false explorer’ as you dub them still push for discovery. Even Dr. David Bartholomae has contributed to the country of Rhetoric as an illegal alien. His passport was for the country o f Literary Analysis.

     The passport has just been recently introduced for the continent of Scientific Writing. But since we all are born on and live on the continent of Life Writing, who is to dispute our claim? I would love to meet the man (David) who tells me I do not exist on the continent I’m standing. David argues that teachers know best. They know what writing is and how to teach it. Hey, David, I’m the student; I think I know what I need and what I can do. I’m the one who is learning, so I’m the one who knows the best way to teach me. I’m the one who knows my goals in life, so I’m the one who knows how to achieve them. This is what aggravates me most about David; he and others who adhere to his ideas tell me that I do not exist upon the continent that I am standing. They want to ensure that we have a Certificate of Birth that can only be obtained through their methods and ‘living’ long enough.

     But you need your certificate of birth for the continent of Life Writing. We need to know who you are and what you represent. You may be an imposter or not exist at all. And this will create confusion. We only want those who live to write or are real individuals. To live or prove that you are real; you need that Certificate of Birth; otherwise you don’t live.

     No David, I live, I know I live because I’m talking right now. And I know who I am. If you don’t think I am me, then that is your problem. Guess what! You can’t silence me, I’m here. Don’t worry; I won’t upset your attempts to make a Certificate of Birth mandatory for all who wish to write. But I won’t get my Certificate anytime soon, yet I still plan on writing and existing and being me. Good luck proving that I’m not me, and I don’t exist.

I think I have the upper hand on this.