The Theme Of Rainer Rike

Back when I was a young lad, more specifically when I was in my third year of high school, I was a part of a Creative Writing class. Every Monday the whole class spend the entire day constructing a piece of poetry. While most of the time we were given a format or style to follow, the theme of the piece was entirely up to us. At this point I was not educated in aesthetic art, so I tried to imitate what I thought was true poetry: I wrote about love. When that resulted in one failure after another, I stopped and started doing them about things I had question about. This improved the result of the work, but then it left me with a question. Why did my work based off love received poorly? The answer echoes the theme of Rainer Rike in his Letters

As he puts it, “find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart” (5). Everyone who has ever written anything, from stories to essays, can ask themselves this question. Even when someone is assign to write a report, they do not necessarily have to write anything. So are the reason people write intrinsic or extrinsic? For those who write for extrinsic reasons, they don’t put themselves into the words they write. It could be said that they are mindlessly writing away in order to achieve their goals and external reward such as increase reputation or a good score. Those who write for intrinsic reasons, however, are here to write for themselves. Here, these writers put a part of themselves into what they write about as their reward stems from the boost to their self-worth. With their value of self is increased, as Rike said, the reason on why they write is rooted into their

For the most part, critics are known to praise a writer’s work with small gain or negatively judge someone’s art with large consequences. With the judgment of other being a key aspect of how people define themselves, what does an artist do when facing this problem. Rike’s answer it quite elegantly as the “works of art are of an infinite solitude, and no means of approach is so useless as criticism” (11). Why ignore the critism of the other? Rike explain that the writer’s true feeling about their work is what can be trusted. Passed the arguments and discussions presented by others, the work of art is a reflection of the artist. With this reasoning, the opinion of the writer should be the only governing factor of the art. I believe this idea of thinking about making your own artwork is important to any artists. From personal experience, I know that this ideology would have greatly benefit my skills as an artist. When growing up, surrounded by many talented people, it’s hard for any aspiring artists to develop their ability. This was made worst when the more talented people judge the new artists in a condescending manner that the reason artist create is slowly ripped from their hearts. Had they focus on putting their own feeling to their piece rather than appealing towards the desire of others, then an artist could continue with creating rather than having thoughts