REFLECTIONS ISSUE #004
Why I Write
Some thoughts on penning thoughts
I’m taking to myself on paper, on a screen. Is that not obvious?
Why does anyone write — spending hours on end transferring ideas and thoughts via our fingertips to digital paper? Is it not so that we can figure ourselves out? To understand why it is we exist?
I wonder how I can monetise what I do while still remaining true to the art of transferring thought to paper. Advertising and marketing; they exist for another reason. They overstep the process and come at things from the perspective of the end result. They cajole and manipulate in order to persuade you and I to act how they want to us to act.
Art is different.
Art asks you and I to think. Advertising and marketing asks you to act, not to think. Thinking is the exact opposite of what they want you and I to do.
I write not to market or advertise. Ok, that’s a lie. I do, sometimes?
Primarily, I write because I have a voice and I need to speak it. To convey thoughts on the nature of my own mortality and that of yours, the reason we exist, and what it is the fuck I am and you are.
How can I monetise what I do?
Really, fuck that.
Ok, not completely. I’m not him nor do I want to be, but I take inspiration from him. He teaches that in order to write we need to go deep. We can’t stay out there where behaviour is most important. We’ve got to stay in here where thought is most important.
At least for a while. Sometimes a long while. Then when it’s time to leave the cave, we can say; “hey, check this out you fuckers!”
I write because there is something that needs expression. Now, the means by which that thing, whatever it is, expresses itself are varied. It’s just writing seems to be the medium now. So I’ll run with that.
I’ll write and you’ll come if you wish.
So cajoling, manipulation, plucking at your heart and mind strings so that you dance like a fucking puppet is out of the predetermine equation.
Forget that.
That’s plastic, disingenuous. So I must watch myself that I’m not drawn into that. It’s easy to do, however.
I write, and maybe you’ll read, and after that let’s see what happens.
Less censorship.
This Week on The Reflectionist (and beyond)
Are There Any Grammarians?
A short account of Bukowski’s thought on the traditional form and structure of poetry (hint: he considered it bollocks)
Incendiary Device TV
A Rant on the manipulative nature of the media
Quitting Your Job & Other Stories
A trip back into The Reflectionist archive
From Pessimist To Optimist
A heavily researched article recently published on The Ascent
Kettle Steam
A poem recently published on Storymaker
The Dark Side of Goal Setting
A recently published story on The Postgrad Survival Guide publication
That’s all I’ve got for now…Slán 👋
Larry
