it’s funny to see that line come back at me. it was written in a moment of irritation after struggling to get my creative writing students to recognize the distinction between writing “on the surface” and daring to explore depth. I stand by it though. It has just taken me two novels and a lot of emotional struggle to get there.
I don’t necessarily dispute the line nor the sentiment behind it. In many ways I agree with it — it’s part of what makes someone a true Artist. There must be a willingness to risk all with a work that eminates from that quiet place where only you can go.
My guess is that your students lack(ed) the willingness\ability to do the hard self-introspection required to do anything beyond the surface. Most people lack that trait.
I suppose part of my reasons for leaving the comment was due to having (within minutes prior to reading your blog) removed a 5 page blog of my own from my site. After writing it throughout the day yesterday I realized how self-pitying and whining it was. It stayed up overnight, long enough for one friend to read part of it before giving up on it. (i couldn’t even make it through it to edit it) I suppose, as the friend said, the important part was that I wrote it and purged it from my mind, which is a good thing.
I’ve been thinking and thinking about this. I don’t think one can or would want to write everything of oneself all at once. Perhaps rather I would like to explore the range of myself in my writing? And risk, certainly risk. I liked your post a lot though, Jon.
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This is my original Norwegian draft of an essay published in the Danish foreign policy magazine Udenrigs today as part of a special issue on AI and foreign policy. I argue that AI is influencing the way we tell stories, and more seriously, that there is a risk of this […]
In 2022 I learned about FAIR data, the movement to make research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reproducible. One of UiB’s brilliant research librarians, Jenny Ostrup, patiently helped me make the dataset from the Machine Vision project FAIR in 2022 – I wrote a little bit about that in my […]
Thanks to everyone who came to the triple book talk of three recent books on machine vision by James Dobson, Jussi Parikka and me, and thanks for excellent questions. Several people have emailed to asked if we recorded it, and yes we did! Here you go! James and Jussi’s books […]
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fivecats
Okay, so where does that leave the Editing process?
I’d continue on with the thought, but I’m not sure where you’re coming from with your statement, so I’ll just, um, edit myself and leave it at that.
fivecats
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jon
it’s funny to see that line come back at me. it was written in a moment of irritation after struggling to get my creative writing students to recognize the distinction between writing “on the surface” and daring to explore depth. I stand by it though. It has just taken me two novels and a lot of emotional struggle to get there.
fivecats
I don’t necessarily dispute the line nor the sentiment behind it. In many ways I agree with it — it’s part of what makes someone a true Artist. There must be a willingness to risk all with a work that eminates from that quiet place where only you can go.
My guess is that your students lack(ed) the willingness\ability to do the hard self-introspection required to do anything beyond the surface. Most people lack that trait.
I suppose part of my reasons for leaving the comment was due to having (within minutes prior to reading your blog) removed a 5 page blog of my own from my site. After writing it throughout the day yesterday I realized how self-pitying and whining it was. It stayed up overnight, long enough for one friend to read part of it before giving up on it. (i couldn’t even make it through it to edit it) I suppose, as the friend said, the important part was that I wrote it and purged it from my mind, which is a good thing.
My apologies for any defensiveness.
Jill
I’ve been thinking and thinking about this. I don’t think one can or would want to write everything of oneself all at once. Perhaps rather I would like to explore the range of myself in my writing? And risk, certainly risk. I liked your post a lot though, Jon.
'if' ...
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