Afflatus: Authorial Inspiration while Letter Writing
By Inakshi Bagga
Edited by Annabel Wearring-Smith
‘I remembered recently that Thomas Hardy, when out walking, composed poems in his head- if lines came. He was frequently underway without pencil and paper, and when this happened he used a piece of chalk and a lead or a stone to capture fleeing words.‘
The latest submission to appear in Volume 7 of The Letters Page is a striking piece by Rolf Venner that paints an intimate portrait of what it means to be a writer caught in a fleeting moment of afflatus. Written in a highly personal tone, the letter pays homage to the beauty of the natural world, drawing on images of the perpetual motion of nature to re-create a writer’s mind in the exact moment of creative impulse. Rolf opens his letter with a powerful statement: ‘I write so many letters to you in my head, and then, all of a sudden, one becomes ink.’ With these words, he raises probably one of the most asked questions by writers: where does inspiration come from?
The term ‘afflatus’ refers to a communication of knowledge that is often spiritual or supernatural in nature. For writers, it essentially encompasses an intense but fleeting passion that moves beyond inspiration and towards a divine impulse. Reading Rolf’s letter led me to recall perhaps the most well-known figure associated with afflatus, Roman orator Cicero. Cicero frequently referred to the concept of afflatus in many of his philosophical works, notably in De Natura Deorum, in which he describes afflatus as an overpowering creative impulse that renders writers wholly powerless under its will. Rolf eloquently captures this in his letter, where he interweaves his musings on nature into a self-conscious narrative style to transform the act of writing from something mundane into an exhilarating and thrilling journey.
Afflatus is highly spiritual in nature, a notion that is showcased in much of the writing and criticism of the Romantic literary period. A characteristic feature of Romantic literature is the portrayal of intense emotions, often framing them through the lens of the natural world to create a powerful portrait of the human experience. Samuel Coleridge’s poem ‘Kubla Khan’ and his inspiration for it captures the essence of afflatus perfectly. He prefaces it with the words ‘Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.’ Coleridge interestingly describes it as a ‘psychological curiosity’, describing the poem as being a recollection of a dream he had while under an opium stupor. He composed the poem in its entirety in one night but was unable to finish it due to becoming interrupted in his moment of afflatus. The poem serves only a partial recollection of his dream, and yet it beautifully captures the senselessness of a writer in their creative element.
Authorial inspiration as a concept varies widely from writer to writer. For some, writing is perceived as a learned and studied craft, where it is argued that good writing does not come solely from inspiration. Ernest Hemingway famously wrote ‘We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes master’, a quote that made me consider what it means to be a good writer. Can good writing be owed solely to brief but intense moments of afflatus, or is hard work the deciding factor? Is afflatus on its own enough?
Virginia Woolf interestingly said ‘there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.’ Famous for her stream-of-consciousness narration, Woolf’s statement echoes the raw authenticity of Rolf’s letter, where writing moves beyond fiction and becomes a window into the writer’s mind. In a New York Times article ‘You Should Start Writing Letters’, Jordan Salama explores the letter form in relation to the sense of profound emotion that it is grounded in. He says ‘it adds a sense of emotion and escape, yet hardly detracts from the ability to write candidly about our wide range of current experiences.’ Letter-writing differs from traditional prose fiction in the sense that it offers far more intimacy, often gaining inspiration from lived events and crafting them into a stream-of-consciousness narrative. Afflatus is a central part of this. For Rolf, afflatus acts as the foundation of his writing, and yet he also makes sure to highlight that it is not the sole decider in a good writer: ‘I’m a believer in afflatus- so long as it doesn’t turn the recipient into a literary bighead.’
If you would like to read Rolf’s letter and learn more about his thoughts on afflatus, send us a letter of your own to receive a copy of Rolf’s in the post. If you’ve already written to us, an aerogramme will be in your post-boxes in the near future.
The Letters Page team are back in the office, and ready to read your real letters again. We publish stories, essays, poems, memoir, reportage, criticism, recipes, travelogue, and any hybrid forms, so long as they come to us in the form of a letter. We are looking for writers of all nationalities and ages, both established and emerging.
Your letter must be sent in the post, to :
The Letters Page, School of English, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK.
See our submissions page for more information.
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