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<title>Zk | 02</title>
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<h1>Zk | 02</h1>
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<p>date: 2019-08-27
weight: 2</p>
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<p>All of writing, all of creativity is selfish. To take some idea or some concept and to set it down on paper and say, &ldquo;I made this&rdquo; is selfish, of course, but to then take that thing and show it to others with the expectation that they might get something out of it as well is taking that several steps further.</p>
<p>To sit down in front of the keyboard and to say, &ldquo;I am going to write a story about a person who runs away from home to escape her fundamentally unhappy life&rdquo; and to then take that story, post it on the internet, submit it to anthologies, publish it in a collection and attempt to get others to read it, is selfish. It&rsquo;s an act of improvement for the writer, sometimes on a very real basis, if there is money to be made in the process.</p>
<p>To sit down in front of the keyboard, however, and say, &ldquo;I am going to write a story about me when I ran away to escape my fundamentally unhappy life&rdquo;, well, now we&rsquo;re up to three levels of selfishness. I try and nail down an idea to paper or screen and say, somehow, that it is <em>right</em> and <em>good</em>, I make that idea about <em>myself</em>, and then I try to show that idea to <em>others</em>&hellip;</p>
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<p>Is there no good to be had from memoirs, then? From any autobiographical content?</p>
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<p>There&rsquo;s certainly good to be had for the writer, for the creator. On my end, I&rsquo;m making something that I both feel proud about and am learning from. I&rsquo;m learning more about this art, I&rsquo;m learning more about all of these problems I&rsquo;m tackling &mdash; I didn&rsquo;t know, for instance, just how conflicted I was about my dad until I started writing that section of the site. I though, <em>oh, I&rsquo;ll write about my past and make the final point that I&rsquo;ve had to accept that there&rsquo;s a certain amount of my dad that I&rsquo;m comfortable having in my life, a certain level of relationship that&rsquo;s acceptable</em>. I was not expecting to learn, through writing, just how conflicted I am about him still.</p>
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<p>And for others? Is there not enjoyment to be gained from that which you create?</p>
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<p><em>Disappearance</em> was good, I thought. I got a lot of good words sent my way from some folks that mean a lot to me for it. The story left an impact on them, they came away from it with some sort of enjoyment, or at least some level of emotional resonance.</p>
<p>This project, though? I don&rsquo;t know. there are bits that I&rsquo;ve tried to make enjoyable. I had fun with the <a class="pulse" href="/koan">koans</a> and <a class="pulse" href="/birds">birds</a>. I put a lot of emotional investment into the bits about <a class="pulse" href="/margaras">Margaras</a> and <a class="pulse" href="/dad">my dad</a>. I tried to do some fun mixed-media stuff with <a class="pulse" href="/furry/fursona">the fursoña animations</a> and <a class="pulse" href="/poet-and-mystic">the mysticism stuff</a>. I can see those being enjoyable.</p>
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<p>And the rest?</p>
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<p>I don&rsquo;t know. Honestly.</p>
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<p>What about applicability?</p>
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<p>I&hellip;hmm.</p>
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<p>You came into this page thinking, &ldquo;Ah yes, time to dunk on myself again&rdquo;, didn&rsquo;t you?</p>
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<p>I guess I did. Self-deprecation runs deep in queer lives. Self-doubt plagues artists. Self-deception runs in the family.</p>
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<p>Selfishness is defensible when it leads to entertainment, applicability, or self-improvement.</p>
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<p>To an extent. At some point, it&rsquo;s just narcissism. At some point gets so &ldquo;treat yourself&rdquo; that one loses sight of collective improvement.</p>
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<p>Of course. Are you really in danger of such?</p>
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<p>Constantly, feels like.</p>
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