Something I’ve been thinking quite a bit about recently is the idea of a person’s writing style. You see, when I was younger, I was convinced that the absolute, most amazing piece of literature ever written would be written by someone who has never been affected or influenced by another’s work—a completely unique style and voice, unlike anything ever created before. That work would be the absolute epitome of literature. I was severely disappointed, as you might imagine, that I would never be able to create such a work, since I read a different book every three days. That disappointment was short-lived, however, since I quickly realized that I was a little bit of an idiot. How is a person supposed to be able to read, never mind write, if they’d never read before? There is no way to be a writer without being influenced in one way or another.
I picked up Michel de Montaigne’s On Solitude recently, and the very first few pages he mentions something that piqued my interest: “There is nothing more unsociable than Man, and nothing more sociable: unsociable by his vice, sociable by his nature.” I thought back to when I was younger, when I’d foolishly thought that the greatest writer in history would be illiterate, and realized that perhaps the thought hadn’t been so foolish. It reminded me of the ever going feud of “Nature vs. Nurture” between psychologists. Perhaps we learn through living, or perhaps we’re born with certain knowledge—who knows. I certainly don’t, and I doubt the answer to that question will come anytime soon. I just found it incredibly interesting that all these things tie in together, which reaches back to the idea of interdisplinarity in the end, as it was my thoughts about writing and literature that inform my opinion about the nature vs. nurture debate.
I have to admit, though, that I’m not as intelligent and well-read as this post makes me seem. The book I mentioned above isn’t the only reason I started thinking about this. As you know, it’s Black Friday, and there was a really big sale on Steam (a platform to buy video games). I ended up buying a game called Undertale. Absolutely amazing, everyone should play it, even if you don’t like video games.
Moving on.
As the protagonist in the game, you have the choice of either killing every monster you meet or somehow talking (or flirting) your way out of a fight. I won’t spoil the ending(s), but each and every choice you make effects your personality and what options you have at the end. That set up of the game is what got me thinking about nature vs nurture, which is even more impressive considering that such a modern medium managed to engage such an involved topic.