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pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Reading Barty's breakdown for third of how to write a blog was interesting. I didn't get into English lit at school (surprise surprise) and so never really got into breaking things down and putting together thought out arguments. That's probably the main thing I wish could have been different about school. Feels like that one class would have made the biggest diff. I like writing but there's something daunting about it. And it's really fucking slow. The writing pace vs my thought pace make a tension that has me writing in a totally different voice to talking which is frustrating. Also the possibility of finding out I don't have anything to say is a put off. The idea of bouncing ideas off of others like we do on here seems like the best route in the end
 
I was thinking about this on the other thread. About writing that's undermining its own authority, drawing attention to it, inviting infidelity. Being provocative but also making room for the reader. Because everyone is an unreliable narrator in a way.
 

luka

Well-known member
I never did enough school to learn how to write essays Or to get comfortable with writing essays either. Probably part of my resistance to essays is that link with homework.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
I find them very creative and artistic. I feel like I'm doing a painting when I work on one. Rushes of inspiration to get the bulk done, and then touch-ups and repaints over a longer period.

I understand completely what you are saying about the dishonesty of the authoritative voice, though. it is definitely a big trap with this kind of thing, and it is even more obvious and widespread now than it was 15 years ago. I stopped myself writing about politics precisely as a reaction to this and the sense that I had done it myself, and to myself.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
Reading Barty's breakdown for third of how to write a blog was interesting. I didn't get into English lit at school (surprise surprise) and so never really got into breaking things down and putting together thought out arguments. That's probably the main thing I wish could have been different about school. Feels like that one class would have made the biggest diff. I like writing but there's something daunting about it. And it's really fucking slow. The writing pace vs my thought pace make a tension that has me writing in a totally different voice to talking which is frustrating. Also the possibility of finding out I don't have anything to say is a put off. The idea of bouncing ideas off of others like we do on here seems like the best route in the end

There are other ways of writing or structuring essays. But yes, you do need to have something to say, or a clear reason for writing it and not just adding to the huge heap of pointless words.
 

luka

Well-known member
In case it's not obvious (it is obvious) I want to try and write them but have a mental block which is comprised of all sorts of insecurities and whatnot. Same as I wanted to do school but I just couldn't. Something was there stopping me. Some force or barrier
 

luka

Well-known member
It's like doing exercise or something. You know it would be good for you but you can't get out of bed.
 
I was thinking about this on the other thread. About writing that's undermining its own authority, drawing attention to it, inviting infidelity. Being provocative but also making room for the reader. Because everyone is an unreliable narrator in a way.

This idea is in my head because of foucault's preface to D&G, which im struggling with

Do not become enamored of power.
It could even be said that Deleuze and Guattari care so little for
power that they have tried to neutralize the effects of power linked to
their own discourse. Hence the games and snares scattered throughout
the book, rendering its translation a feat of real prowess. But these are
not the familiar traps of rhetoric; the latter work to sway the reader
without his being aware of the manipulation, and ultimately win him
over against his will. The traps of Anti-Oedipus ate those of humor: so
many invitations to let oneself be put out, to take one's leave of the text
and slam the door shut. The book often leads one to believe it is all fun
and games, when something essential is taking place, something of
extreme seriousness: the tracking down of all varieties of fascism,from
the enormous ones that surround and crush us to the petty ones that
constitute the tyrannical bitterness of our everyday lives.
 

craner

Beast of Burden
It's just a form of expression, isn't it. It just happens I find things I want to say come out better in the form of an essay than a novel or a poem. It's not the same for you. That's all it means. You don't have to get hung up about it. I can't write poems to save my life, but I can write an essay about a poem if I want to. That's just the way it is.
 
Like an anti-persuasion. Look here i'm an immoral stupid cunt who doesn't care about anything but would you please fucking listen!!!
 

luka

Well-known member
It's just a form of expression, isn't it. It just happens I find things I want to say come out better in the form of an essay than a novel or a poem. It's not the same for you. That's all it means. You don't have to get hung up about it. I can't write poems to save my life, but I can write an essay about a poem if I want to. That's just the way it is.

I am hung up about it though. Partly because there is a whole lot of things I don't put in poems. The side of my mind that ends up here.
 

luka

Well-known member
And as with patty it's partly a chip on the shoulder thing to do with education. Nigglly thing.
 
There’s now a tension between a dislike of authoritative voice and what was said on the interesting writing thread about how qualification kills momentum, how in criticism things have to be the pinnacle of humanity or worse than the holocaust, absolutes

And this reminds me of a thing that was said at a Chris Morris screening and lecture by a superfan last night. He talked a lot about him using his authority, his command of language, posh voice, height, mastery of certain forms… and using it to point out the absurdity of those dynamics, revealing what the medium is doing, how it’s manipulating us. So authoritative in form and tone but subversive in content
 
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