I love the irony in you mentioning the use of AI for efficiency and then just a few paragraphs later using AI to speed up your research process. I think that's a key indicator of how the writing/reading process is evolving, forcing a shift in this culture. Good writing does stir emotion, but as we lean into metrics and social trends, the line between emotion and engagement blurs.
It's refreshing to hear you say that it's been 20 years of writing - I have respect for such consistency. I think that's the toughest thing to overcome in this era of writing; we get attached to these creative outlets and then let them pass all too quickly. And I mean this as a barrier for folks who don't write full-time or pocket 300k from paid subscriptions. Power to those folks, but consistency looks a bit different there.
For others, it's the constant bat-swings of other creative and lifely endeavors in order to stay on the bike they're currently riding. And you've done that for the past 20 years and I'm truly looking forward to reading the next 20 years of your words and will try my damn best to keep up with you.
"Good writing stirs emotions. At our best, we distinguish the substance of our readers’ responses from the emotions we stirred in them. At our best, writing makes us courageous without becoming unkind."
"Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them. Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings."
Tolstoy goes on to note that the infectiousness of a piece of art--how easily it infects the consumer of art with the feelings of its creator--determines its quality.
Your curiosity about what the future holds in the next twenty years has definitely taken root in my mind. I owe you, and myself, a better and more developed answer to that question.
As usual, you're giving me a lot to think about. It'll probably stay in my drafts, but I'm endlessly thankful to the connections I've made writing in my little corner(s) of the internets. Abrazos!
OMG…I like you even more my friend after reading the Elena story…wow, such a good story. Reading it became visual for me as I pictured you and Elena cruising around accessible SD locales. Shame we did not meet as bloggers.
I love the irony in you mentioning the use of AI for efficiency and then just a few paragraphs later using AI to speed up your research process. I think that's a key indicator of how the writing/reading process is evolving, forcing a shift in this culture. Good writing does stir emotion, but as we lean into metrics and social trends, the line between emotion and engagement blurs.
It's refreshing to hear you say that it's been 20 years of writing - I have respect for such consistency. I think that's the toughest thing to overcome in this era of writing; we get attached to these creative outlets and then let them pass all too quickly. And I mean this as a barrier for folks who don't write full-time or pocket 300k from paid subscriptions. Power to those folks, but consistency looks a bit different there.
For others, it's the constant bat-swings of other creative and lifely endeavors in order to stay on the bike they're currently riding. And you've done that for the past 20 years and I'm truly looking forward to reading the next 20 years of your words and will try my damn best to keep up with you.
"Good writing stirs emotions. At our best, we distinguish the substance of our readers’ responses from the emotions we stirred in them. At our best, writing makes us courageous without becoming unkind."
This reminds me of the Tolstoy essay (https://home.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/361r14.html) that I mentioned at dinner, "What Is Art?":
"Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them. Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man's emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings."
Tolstoy goes on to note that the infectiousness of a piece of art--how easily it infects the consumer of art with the feelings of its creator--determines its quality.
Your curiosity about what the future holds in the next twenty years has definitely taken root in my mind. I owe you, and myself, a better and more developed answer to that question.
As usual, you're giving me a lot to think about. It'll probably stay in my drafts, but I'm endlessly thankful to the connections I've made writing in my little corner(s) of the internets. Abrazos!
OMG…I like you even more my friend after reading the Elena story…wow, such a good story. Reading it became visual for me as I pictured you and Elena cruising around accessible SD locales. Shame we did not meet as bloggers.