(no subject)
(I started writing this entry at 4:00 this morning, gave up on it, and decided to finish it now...)
I'm so tired / I haven't slept a wink. That Beatles song = my life ATM. I'm so sleepy I can barely move right now, but I woke up in the middle of the night and just couldn't get back to sleep. I just lay there writing about a whole page of the book I haven't even started yet in my head, and when I do that I start to get restless thinking, I should probably write all this down... After ten more minutes of this I gave up and got out of bed and by the time I'd gotten some chocolate milk and sat down with my computer to go to the private LJ entry where I have written a bunch of notes for this one story, it didn't seem that important anymore. Character C will get killed because he's mistaken for character A: foreshadowing. The pendant is kind of a red herring. A lot of the backstory about this civilization could be told with their work songs. The painter went blind when he was younger from going into the forbidden shrine but his sight somehow got better: more foreshadowing. No, I won't forget about all of this stuff tomorrow...I think...
I seem to have reached a whole new level of attachment to this particular story idea, because there is one character in it whose unfortunate fate I planned a long time ago in the early stages of coming up with the basic concepts of this book, and I just hadn't thought about it for a long time. But then a few days ago I suddenly remembered what I already decided has to happen to this character, who has become much more fleshed-out in my head since then, and it made me pretty sad. I don't...wanna... :(
In my LAS class, which I already love and not just because any class taught by Thom will essentially be awesome, we've been discussing this really interesting essay that claims democracy in America has lead to the "attenuation of experience." It basically explains how many of our successes in technology and innovation have actually been failures because of what we've lost because of it. Cameras make special moments in life less poignant because they no longer can only be experienced once. We take having fruit for granted now that it's available year round. Indoor plumping and TV sets have made people isolated when people used to be able to meet future spouses walking out to the well or going to see a play. Recordings of music used to be something special, but now you hear music everywhere.
This essay was written in the 70s so it doesn't even take into account things like cell phones, Wal-Mart, and computers, but you definitely see an attitude like this today regarding a lot of new conveniences we have. And for the most part, I think it's all bullshit. Nobody ever says that reading books is an isolating activity much less meaningful than social interaction like they say about watching TV or being on a computer, but I don't see the difference. In fact, I think saying that watching movies or TV or being on the internet is the opposite of "isolating." Because they saw footage of what happened on TV, people living anywhere were able to have a deeper understanding of how terrifying 9-11 was than they would have if news was still only in print. Because of the internet, I've gotten to know people from England, Italy, and Germany. But if I were busy walking to the well every day to get my water I would only talk to people who live within a mile from me and have nothing to tell me I don't already know. And yes, you can even meet a future spouse on the internet. I think there are a lot of people who are still skeptical of things like that, but that doesn't make sense to me considering your chances of finding someone who's right for you in a club full of 50 people might be okay, but if you go to a site where you can find thousands of people who live in your area, your chance are probably going to be much greater.
The argument about music having lost its poignancy because of how much more of it is available now is the part where I really started to want to hunt this writer down who's probably dead anyway and smack some sense into him. If you show some poor child in Africa who has never even seen a film before some piece of crap movie like Killer Klowns From Outer Space, of course he's going to be impressed, and then when you ask what his favorite movie is he'll of course say Killer Klowns, and most likely not because he sees the value of camp but because he's impressed by the illusion of reality made from a strips of film. When I watch a movie or listen to music, maybe I take the technology for granted. But the art itself, of course not. I have heard the song "Love Shack" an innumerable number of times, as have many other people whether they particularly like the song or not. Still, a few months ago when my sister and I were in a store where it started playing, we didn't just not react to it because we've heard it before, but started making idiots out of ourselves dancing around a little to it as we were walking through the store. This is not exactly a common kind of reaction. Everyone else in the store acted as though there might as well be no music playing. Well, it's news to nobody that just about everything is taken for granted sometimes, but you can't make general assumptions about how one thing has affected everybody. Mr. Dead Writer Guy might as well have said that with the advancement of science and technology, everyone has started to appreciate life itself less because now people live longer and less of them die from diseases.
But of course, when it comes to music and stuff like that I'm never going to think those things are luxuries we've been spoiled with because I just don't consider things like music, books, and movies to be unimportant material possessions like jewelry or fancy furniture. I don't think wanting to have their art and keep their damn art makes anybody materialistic or greedy, given that they're actually using and enjoying the things they buy and not just getting them to add to an immense, impressive-looking collection on their shelf.
I'm so tired / I haven't slept a wink. That Beatles song = my life ATM. I'm so sleepy I can barely move right now, but I woke up in the middle of the night and just couldn't get back to sleep. I just lay there writing about a whole page of the book I haven't even started yet in my head, and when I do that I start to get restless thinking, I should probably write all this down... After ten more minutes of this I gave up and got out of bed and by the time I'd gotten some chocolate milk and sat down with my computer to go to the private LJ entry where I have written a bunch of notes for this one story, it didn't seem that important anymore. Character C will get killed because he's mistaken for character A: foreshadowing. The pendant is kind of a red herring. A lot of the backstory about this civilization could be told with their work songs. The painter went blind when he was younger from going into the forbidden shrine but his sight somehow got better: more foreshadowing. No, I won't forget about all of this stuff tomorrow...I think...
I seem to have reached a whole new level of attachment to this particular story idea, because there is one character in it whose unfortunate fate I planned a long time ago in the early stages of coming up with the basic concepts of this book, and I just hadn't thought about it for a long time. But then a few days ago I suddenly remembered what I already decided has to happen to this character, who has become much more fleshed-out in my head since then, and it made me pretty sad. I don't...wanna... :(
In my LAS class, which I already love and not just because any class taught by Thom will essentially be awesome, we've been discussing this really interesting essay that claims democracy in America has lead to the "attenuation of experience." It basically explains how many of our successes in technology and innovation have actually been failures because of what we've lost because of it. Cameras make special moments in life less poignant because they no longer can only be experienced once. We take having fruit for granted now that it's available year round. Indoor plumping and TV sets have made people isolated when people used to be able to meet future spouses walking out to the well or going to see a play. Recordings of music used to be something special, but now you hear music everywhere.
This essay was written in the 70s so it doesn't even take into account things like cell phones, Wal-Mart, and computers, but you definitely see an attitude like this today regarding a lot of new conveniences we have. And for the most part, I think it's all bullshit. Nobody ever says that reading books is an isolating activity much less meaningful than social interaction like they say about watching TV or being on a computer, but I don't see the difference. In fact, I think saying that watching movies or TV or being on the internet is the opposite of "isolating." Because they saw footage of what happened on TV, people living anywhere were able to have a deeper understanding of how terrifying 9-11 was than they would have if news was still only in print. Because of the internet, I've gotten to know people from England, Italy, and Germany. But if I were busy walking to the well every day to get my water I would only talk to people who live within a mile from me and have nothing to tell me I don't already know. And yes, you can even meet a future spouse on the internet. I think there are a lot of people who are still skeptical of things like that, but that doesn't make sense to me considering your chances of finding someone who's right for you in a club full of 50 people might be okay, but if you go to a site where you can find thousands of people who live in your area, your chance are probably going to be much greater.
The argument about music having lost its poignancy because of how much more of it is available now is the part where I really started to want to hunt this writer down who's probably dead anyway and smack some sense into him. If you show some poor child in Africa who has never even seen a film before some piece of crap movie like Killer Klowns From Outer Space, of course he's going to be impressed, and then when you ask what his favorite movie is he'll of course say Killer Klowns, and most likely not because he sees the value of camp but because he's impressed by the illusion of reality made from a strips of film. When I watch a movie or listen to music, maybe I take the technology for granted. But the art itself, of course not. I have heard the song "Love Shack" an innumerable number of times, as have many other people whether they particularly like the song or not. Still, a few months ago when my sister and I were in a store where it started playing, we didn't just not react to it because we've heard it before, but started making idiots out of ourselves dancing around a little to it as we were walking through the store. This is not exactly a common kind of reaction. Everyone else in the store acted as though there might as well be no music playing. Well, it's news to nobody that just about everything is taken for granted sometimes, but you can't make general assumptions about how one thing has affected everybody. Mr. Dead Writer Guy might as well have said that with the advancement of science and technology, everyone has started to appreciate life itself less because now people live longer and less of them die from diseases.
But of course, when it comes to music and stuff like that I'm never going to think those things are luxuries we've been spoiled with because I just don't consider things like music, books, and movies to be unimportant material possessions like jewelry or fancy furniture. I don't think wanting to have their art and keep their damn art makes anybody materialistic or greedy, given that they're actually using and enjoying the things they buy and not just getting them to add to an immense, impressive-looking collection on their shelf.