Rant 32: Tsundoku & Bibliomania

Do not worship dead objects. Buy books to read them not because they're available.

Bibliomania can ruin your life. Be sure to read every book you buy and if you don't read it then get rid of it.

You must beat your tsundoku or you will be eaten by it. Having an antilibrary does have it's warm reassurance and it is true that books do go out of print and become difficult to obtain. Nevertheless, this is an age of the pan-dimensional Amazon's Bay.

Most of your library can be reduced to a photo archive of the covers, as one friend does during his regular cullings. He is not a researcher however.

Peppa Pig defines a talent as something you're good at doing which you also like to do. But can a talent for research emerge without books to read and peruse and refer to?

Books are the tools of my trade. For me to have read every book in my library would be as bad as having read none of them. If I had the resources I would build a room of modest area but with 8 meter high walls. One wall would be a bookshelf (and a built-in ladder). The other three would be a blackboard, a whiteboard, and a blank white plaster wall. The door would be through the bookshelf. The ceiling would be lightly tinted glass.

But until that room, until that day. The books must be contained. Be discriminating.

Idea 99: 8th Coven, 2nd Broom, Company B

Every square unit of area we take from the enemy is hard fought and dearly paid for in life. We find ourselves in dire straits. We keep going. -- from the Journal of Pvt. Blair during the assault on Cyclopea Three during the Witch Wars of 3431.

"Get back up there!"
"You're not the boss of me!
"Oh yes I am,"
"Argh! Yes you are!"
"She's gonna want to see progress!"
The cackle of the witch sergeant was full throated and high pitched at the same time. It struck a nerve deep in the ancestral coccyx and made you twitch and spasm in fearful sparks of pain.

I have just spent five hours throwing away stuff

Time I could have spent improving my skills, reading a book, shopping for groceries was spent throwing out stuff I should have thrown out years ago. Like every schmo I know with stuff, I don't notice the years it takes to accumulate it but I do notice the hours it takes to dissipate it.

I heard a good story from a relative about their neighbour. This neighbour was a cool dude with style and taste. He would sit in the evenings on his porch and play rare jazz records. Friends would drop by to share a bite to eat or with something to drink. He was a cordial and warm host.

When he died, his relative with power of attorney put his house on the market. There was a one day open house garage sale. Everything in the place for a buck or a quarter. Like locusts, strangers picked over his rare and precious curiosities. lifetimes of wonder and mystery collected in each object.

What didn't sell that day was bagged up and put to the curb. There was too much bagged and curbed.

I don't want my stuff to meet that fate. I'd rather hand my treasures down to individuals I know well who can choose to enjoy them for some time or pass them on or sell them or let them go or whatever they deem fit.

But the chain of custody will not be broken.

My relative bought his rocking chair. She wanted one thing to remember him by.

First you get the stuff, then the stuff gets some stuff, then the stuff gets you.

First drafts with a fountain pen in a physical notebook vs Stephen King's pencil

An interviewer asked Stephen King what sort of pencil he uses, says Seth Godin in an interview by Tim Ferris. Godin goes on to say the type of pencil is irrelevant just like the process of any one individual is irrelevant. For what it is worth, Stephen King gets up in the morning and gets 6 clean pages written in a computer and then gets on with his day and his life. Seth Godin, by contrast, admits to no ritual or habit. He just posts once a day.

By contrast, Neil Gaiman says he writes his first drafts with a fountain pen in a good notebook (coincidentally also in an interview by Tim Ferris). Gaiman goes on to support his claim by saying he feels like he is losing something when he makes cuts to a digital first draft, but when he types up his first draft into the computer and decides to leave something out he feels like nothing is lost and what is more, he saves time.

So which process doesn't matter, what does matter is that you find a process that works for you.

Once, when I was a teenager, I saw a guy sitting and writing in a cafe on a legal pad with a disposable pen. He had a girl leaning up against him and I remember she was cute. He paid her no attention. At that age I thought it odd amusing. They seemed to have an arrangement. She never spoke. She just leaned on his left arm with her head sometimes resting on his shoulder while he wrote.

I interrupted him to ask why he did it that way, he replied he just had to. At that stage of my life I was already a touch typist with the familiar-to-young-writers fulminous outpouring of material.

I could not imagine taking such pains. There was too much to be done.

At this later stage of my life, I have another process: I use whatever I have, wherever I am.

But the best drafts still come from physical media. Pens and pencils. As an instructor of academic writing, I advise my students to do the same. Invariably, when they take my advice, they produce higher quality.

So the answer to the question implied in the title is yes, no, either, both.

Just write.

Detail from the Castle of Cagliostro (1979) Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

When does the audience matter?

“What is most important is from which state of mind you're doing what you're doing," Marina Abramovic, a performance artist, has been quoted as saying.

Doing the dishes can be work of art.

It's the brick laying versus the cathedral building once again.

Many great talents reported they did not enjoy the practice of their talent. English writer Roald Dahl for one.

But were they telling the truth or were they walking with a limp before losing their canes and doing back flips like Gene Wilder in the 1971 film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

Writer-Director Ilir Pristine whose latest feature Florrie (2019) premiered this July had this to say about the audience. "What they had in common was a strong emotional response to Florrie, but their opinions were as unique as themselves."

I took this to mean the audience is important because without the audience there is no artist. But the audience does not matter because writing for so many would be writing for no one and would satisfy no one and evoke strong emotional responses in no one.

The audience does not matter.
The audience is important.

But the art is from a particular state of mind.

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Get your day right

All those days that came and went, little did I know that they were life. -- Stig Johansson
Work at improving your day.
The secret to your success lies in what you do every day.
It doesn’t have to be a perfect anything. Keep going.

You might argue. you might say that you intend the opposite or an alternate. Whatever you choose or don't choose is what you live, exist or die with.

Nothing means anything so it is better to strive because the satisfactions that come to those who strive do more than make the time pass, they make the time pass significantly. All those eternities of scherzo between the tick and the tock can dance for you if you can be vital and fresh at least once per day.

Get your day right.

People will Believe what they believe and want what they want.

 This was the line that struck me as I was re-reading the 22 immutable laws of marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

It’s a very strong claim and the test of my experience runs against it. Or does it? I am prepared to treat it as a presupposition and see how much effort I can save to put to more worthwhile pursuits.

Game: What’s your blog about?

Listening to this: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-tim-ferriss-show/id863897795?i=1000442141971

Chip Conley, entrepreneur and writer, Talks about a game called ‘what business are you in?’ The essential rule is simple: ask a player ‘what business are you in?’ They answer. Then you ask again. They answer again, but they can’t answer the same way. Conley asserts that after five answers the player will get to an answer very close to the essence of their business.

What if I changed the question?

What is your blog about?

Coverage will save you if you don't get any close ups or cutaways.

We made some great short films this summer at movie camp and because it is almost over I wanted to say something about how we teach shots. There are so many different types of shots that we can't name let alone practice in 10 days so I only teach 3 broad categories. Coverage, Close ups and Cutaways.

The campers don't always get their close ups and cutaways but because I ask them to shoot coverage first, we can always get the story told.

Also, with NLE video systems these days,, we can often cheat the close ups and cutaways with panning and cropping tools.

Leading the way through technology! These films are much better than my first efforts.

90 seconds to post as an experiment to see if people really don't have enough time to write every day.

This is not addressed to those who don't blog or write everyday. It is addressed to those who complain they don't have the time.

You have the time to do so much every day which doesn't help you move the dial.

Netflix, Television, Reddit, Instagram.

These things have their place. In moderation they are cheap entertainments offering infinite jest.

Before you do these things. If you say you want to write, write. If you don't want to, don't.

So, if I ever teach a blogging class, the objective will include a daily post that takes 3 minutes from logging in to posting. That should be generous.

First Thoughts about Blogging as a course of study

Seth Godin writes five blog posts and posts one. Daily.
The secret to success lies in your daily habits.
Life punishes vague dreams and rewards explicit tasks (Tim Ferris, lifestyle experimenter)
Perfect marketing makes advertising (in theory) superfluous.
Blogs which have a well defined scope are more attractive.
Blogs which have a well defined structure are more attractive.
If I attended a 30x45 minute course on blogging, what would I want to learn?
If I created such a course, what would I want to include?
Blogging for reminiscence and memory work
Blogging for marketing purposes
Blogging for self-expression
Blogging for self-promotion
Blogging for Journalism, micro-cultural news, themed news, local news and other news.
Non-text blogging. Photo blogging and video blogging, and platforms similar to blogging which are not blogging.
Advantages and disadvantages of different forms of mass communication media platforms in terms of happiness, vitality and health.
Keeping a journal while living in a self obsessed, permanently distracted, culture.
Efforts by individuals and communities to overcome this trend.
The difference between pleasure and satisfaction
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman
You are a brand. What does that mean?
Blogs are platforms where there is no implicit trust so it must be earned over time. How long it takes depends on good luck, extent of planning, consistent execution and unknown unknowns.
Good luck includes timeliness.
Extent of planning includes research and meticulous attention to detail.
Consistent execution includes degree of effort; how much of that effort comes from willpower (exhaustible) and how much comes from well developed habits (easy to create, hard to create deliberately) will determine the probability of successful execution.
Unknown unknowns are all those factors which must exist but have not yet been considered.
Push downhill: Sell what folks want to buy (Seth Godin)
Remember Zig Ziglar

Links for further reading:
https://www.quicksprout.com/10-lessons-seth-godin-can-teach-you-about-blogging/
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/writing-tips-seth-godin