epiphanie

I'd been thinking about the difference between writers and sociologists lately. Reason being, I'm a writer and most of my friends are sociologists or faux-sociologists. Tina, on the other hand, is a sociologist whose friend-base is primarily writers. And I always get the strange feeling I've seen this friend-scenario several other times.

The two fields seem to me to be a lot closer to one another than, say, writing and literature. Or sociology and political science. Writers and sociologists both want to understand human beings on the most personal possible level, and use that info to their own ends--writing books, poems, making friends, being tactical sycophants.

So I came up with a theorem. Call it Theory I. It seemed to me that sociologists spent their entire careers trying to get into other people's heads, whereas writers spent their entire careers trying to get out. (If you're on Facebook, you might've read the quote about some 50% of all writers suffering from some degree of mental disease, from simple OCD to advanced manic-depression. It's a work hazard from tapping the collective un/conscious so often, I thought.)

Anyways, I think I was wrong. The more I think about it, the more I think Theory II is the more correct, albeit the more disturbing, comparison:

(And you're damn right I'm italicizing my own quote. Skeet skeet.)

The difference between sociologists and writers is that sociologists spend their lives trying to break into other people's heads, while writers spend their lives trying to break out of their own.