Earlier today I was going through one of my notebooks and, to my surprise, it's full of interesting stuff! Most of it is just journal-like, but I found a couple of neat ideas for stories and some "poems" (more phrases than anything) that I thought would be fun to share here. I'll post a few today and maybe a few more tomorrow.

The truth hides in the beats between lightning and thunder.

Yesterday a wise one told me that a grateful man never suffers.

(Not sure what I'll do with the above phrases. Maybe stick them in a story somewhere? The second one is actually quite interesting in and of itself, as it's probably true! A person who's grateful for everything has nothing to suffer about.)

What do you tell a man who does not know what to say?

Who can't hear 'cause his heart is nowhere near?

Nowhere to be found.

Only stone and sand and blood and bone.

Where is the heart, how can he hear, when his heart is nowhere near?

(I wrote this last one while in the midst of a fairly strong depressive episode. I felt very much like life was just passing me by, and no matter how much "life" tried, I felt nothing except grayness.)

...

I'm glad my curiosity pushed me to leaf through the notebook, or these would've probably lain forgotten for who knows how long. Maybe forever?

I frequently wonder about this idea of the "durability of media", specifically when comparing "analog" media (like a notebook) with digital media (like this blog). There are pros and cons to each, and maybe different kinds of writing belong in different places? Or maybe it's not so much the writing but the purpose one has for it.

For instance, writing on a digital medium makes it much easier to rediscover that content later on (e.g., by using semantic similarity or even backlinks1). Digital media is (depending on how you do it and barring any technological cataclysm) arguably more durable than analog media, as the latter can get lost or damaged by the elements. It's also obviously much easier to share with others.

On the other hand, writing with pen and paper is substantially more pleasant than using a keyboard, and notebooks don't require batteries, which is a huge win. You're also less likely to get distracted by anything else, as there's nothing you can do in a notebook besides write. I also find that the act of tracing the letters has a twofold effect on my mind:

  1. it distracts my conscious mind "just enough" so that my creativity flows better,
  2. the extra time this adds to the process gives me that much more time to come up with the proper words.

On the last point: when I'm writing on a keyboard, I often write as fast as I think, and ideas are not always well-formed. When writing by hand, my mind has a lot more time to properly form the sentences it wants to write.

Finally, there's also the important fact that "mistakes" on a digital medium are free; you can simply hit delete and replace the mistake with something different. But on an analog medium a mistake will cost you an ugly blot on the page, so you either (a) don't make mistakes (ha), or (b) live with them (which is what I tend to do).

...

Maybe everything that we create is something that's beyond the medium itself, maybe beyond even ourselves?

It's like the question of whether an "algorithm" (or math, etc.) exists even before someone invents/discovers it. I think so. Knowledge is already "out there," and all we're doing is simply receiving a signal and transcribing it so others can read it.

So maybe we shouldn't worry so much about "durability", as everything we make is permanently "out there". That probably applies to everything, even to our own selves.

... I'm tired, I don't think I'm making much sense here ...

Thoughts:

  • Before writing this post, YouTube's algorithm suggested this great rendition of Isn't She Lovely by Stevie Wonder, played by two drunk dudes. It's an 11-minute watch, and I recommend it :) it's clear that they knew the song well, but there's still a "something" special in how they play it. Maybe it's because they're drunk and they take more weird chances? Maybe not. Still, good playing from both of them.
  • Today I saw two interesting interviews:
    • VICE Meets 'My Struggle' Author Karl Ove Knausgaard
      • Karl Ove Knausgaard is a name that frequently pops up on my feed, and while I more or less knew who he was and what he did, today is the first time I actually took the trouble to investigate more about him.
      • This is a pretty informal interview where he talks about himself and his work. He shares some nice ideas about writing and art that are well worth the watch.
      • I looked up some of his books, but they seem too slow/undirected for my taste. I might read one, though, just to see what the deal is. One that specifically caught my attention was The Morning Star, which is a set of stories about random people going through their daily lives.
    • George Saunders Says Breaking These 3 Delusions Can Save You
      • The clickbait title is a bit misleading, but I guess that's how they get you to click on it. Saunders maybe talks about the "delusions" for a full 3 minutes or so in an almost hour-long interview, so it's definitely not the center of it.
      • This is the first time I hear George Saunders speak, and I immediately liked him. Calm but curious, open, honest. I have never read anything by him, so I added his book Lincoln in the Bardo to my reading list!
      • He seems to be more up my alley, writing speculative fiction with an emphasis on strengthening the connection to our own shared humanity.

Footnotes

  1. That reminds me, I want to add backlinks to my site! ↩