Paul’s Blog

The idea of literary toil and the related concept of long-windedness have been on my mind of late, based on comments I get from time to time about my style of writing. Most of the time though, I see these as diversions or stimulating exercises which are good for the mind. It’s almost like taking a casual stroll through an unknown part of a familiar place, perhaps forested, with a richer more virile energy than you might taste if hiking the same route (more to come on that below). Not to get ahead of myself, let me start back at the beginning.

I will admit I find technology challenges such as in programming code fun because they intersect right at my own current limits of understanding of numerous fields like economics, business ethics, human nature, and design aesthetics. Whereas most conversations — and it seems, certainly television and Hollywood products in general as well as casual literature — are incredibly brief and shallow, I have a tendency to prefer to savor, examine, and excavate to a lower level what ideas I find have unplumbed hidden treasures for exploration.

A perfect circle cannot be made more perfect. To attempt to improve on its shape would perhaps diminish the perfection. So likewise are many things probably (kissing my wife comes to mind). But in analysis, the goal is sometimes of a different nature. Much like reflecting quietly in solitude, where much great writing takes place, there can seem a stream of ideas flowing first fast, and then slow again, winding around obstacles and at times bending completely back upon itself. If one is given to fleeting glances in life, and the circus seems ever to be moving by too fast to alight upon one solid idea, then to gaze long and understand ever better what may lie directly in front can (for me at least) be a refreshing change.

Andy Warhol predicted everyone will be famous for 15 minutes in the future. Was he commenting on the shrinking world due to communication technologies, or was he bemoaning the shrinking intellectual attention span of a society who lives more and more like drones who prefer the safety of vicarious living to first hand thought? I guess “live” TV did it, once penetration really hit virtually every home and even lots of business (and the gym, no less), sometime in the 80’s? Well, we are now at 15 seconds, thanks to YouTube. I can understand how “one shot, one kill” is far more eloquent than the spray of an UZI randomly aimed until it finally hits something. However, I am not spraying a storm of bullets in random directions. I would rather it be said that my thoughts are random, and yet, I think that my thoughts are more organized than that. Instead, what I am advocating is that one use some self-discipline and conscious internal decisions to guide one’s own thoughts back to a central topic for longer than 15 seconds.

Again, I am attempting to avoid the debate of didacticism versus ‘art for art’s sake’ (a famous literary criticism debate, for instance, see Poe’s “The Poetic Principle”). Instead, I simply would rather be still for one brief moment, and contemplate one single idea toward some conclusion more meaningful than is possible when running by at top speed in an endless parade of meaningless lip-service to so many slogans and clichés we merely observed via our favorite media.