Re: an endlesss anaconda of undifferentiated wordss


Subject: Re: an endlesss anaconda of undifferentiated wordss
From: Jive Monkey (monkey_jive@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Jan 30 2001 - 18:41:13 GMT


mein fuhrer-

ja, ja, the "understanding" bit was an oversimplification of my point. i
think i may be suffering from that american "anti-intellectualism" brought
up a few months ago, as the gut instinct i've been running on is that the
rules of writing are set forth and enforced by people who want to show off
how smart they are. i know it isn't true, though, not entirely, although i
have seen that sort of thing (i'm sure we all have). i know that when you
use poor structure, or when you don't capitalize properly, etc, people make
assumptions about you, your education, your upbringing, etc. it's the way
things are, i do it too, and it bugs the hell out me. i guess i just want
to be able to write in all lowercase letters if i feel like it and not have
anyone care too much. i'm not doing any harm, i know that. as far as what
will said about "the game," that bothers me too, because as far as getting
graded on papers and what not that's all it is. it's intellectual
regimentation, pure and simple. the more everyone does everything the same
the better off the system is, because there will be less free thinking going
on. i've met quite a few people who don't, or won't, understand why i would
question the rules, much less bend or break them.
i'm not at all convinced that i'm being lazy or childish, but neither am i
too sure that i'm a rebel with a cause. i do hope that if i'm toying around
with discarded soup cans i'll come to my senses in time to prevent any
damage, much less convince anyone that such an enterprise is worthy.

andy

From: "Scottie Bowman" <rbowman@indigo.ie>
Reply-To: bananafish@roughdraft.org
To: <bananafish@roughdraft.org>
Subject: Re: an endlesss anaconda of undifferentiated wordss
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 21:06:35 -0000

     '... is it just rule books written by others than yourself
     that you would like to ignore? ...'

     Exactly, Andy. NOW you have it. As my wife puts
     it - at the same time discreetly shushing the assembly:
     'The Fuhrer speaks....'

     If you're simply going for 'understanding' why bother
     to become a writer? Me, hunger, bad. Ah, food,
     yumyum, please....
     Thoughts & ideas & convictions are two a penny.
     The difficult bit is laying them out so compellingly,
     so lucidly, making them all so 'new' (as the Mad Ezra
     demanded) - that the one who reads them will never
     again forget them.

     A painter must first accept the long discipline of handling
     a drawing line before he may safely turn to the apparent
     vagaries of cubism or abstraction. In the same way it seems
     sadly to be the case that a writer too must scorch out all
     lazinesses & self-indulgences before he can achieve that
     limpid clarity that lodges in the brain forever. The rack
     on which these heretics must be purged is the long distilled
     set of rules which the best of us have accepted & refined
     over the centuries. Only after that should one start fecking
     around with funny fonts or whatever. Hopefully, the childish
     inclination to do so will have passed by then anyway.

     You don't think, do you, that you're going to become
     Franscisco Goya (or even Pablo Picasso) by tossing a couple
     of Campbell soup tins onto a bath towel & photographing
     the result?

     Scottie B.

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