Dickens called writers ink stained wretches and who really knows what he meant precisely? Editing, revising, publishing with deadlines, all were surely parts of his equation. I don’t think Dickens ever suffered in the white heat of creation. I think the attractions of making were too heady and attractive for him. Dickens was not a pinched writer and unlike Thackeray he liked his characters, even the lugubrious ones.
And yet Dickens knew all too well the disconnections afforded by the creation of a public persona– the writer who is understood as a cheerful progressive is still, at the end of the day, alone in his study and just as alone as all human beings must be.
Literary writing tackles the matter of human loneliness. “Electric communication,” he wrote, “will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.”
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Planet of the Blind 
Wow, that’s an unbelievable quote, but research proved it true (not that I doubted you):
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/04/27/did-charles-dickens-criticize-email-and-twitter/
I would argue with Mr. Dickens (but I argue with everybody). The mode of communication doesn’t have as much relevance as the quality of the soul behind it.
Case in point, I was working with a very lonely woman this week who’s been trying to reach her local State Rehab Blind Services vocational counselor since before Xmas. I told her to try one more time, and then, if she could not establish contact, she needed to contact the Client Assistance Program advocate to help her get a foot in the door. She called, and a pleasant, rationale human being answered, and very cordially invited her to his office to talk that afternoon. A soul who has retained his humanity working in the belly of a great bureaucracy! Wonders never cease.
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