luka

Well-known member
I mean this is an interesting quote in of itself cos it suggests that being smart is of paramount importance.

It's very important ofc but it's hardly what makes a blog worth reading (i.e. FUN to read).

I think what I'm lamenting is

A) the death of blogs
B) the death of music (this one comes with a big question mark)

What I meant was you can read blog style writing by writers who are just as good if not better than those of the early '00s right here. Not that it's an IQ contest. Just to say we should all appreciate what we have because it's really, really good.

And I agree that Woebot was personality driven and the charm lay largely in the authorial voice.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
You gave Barty a massive crisis of confidence when you slagged off his blog. He can't work out what his 'writing voice' is now.

I regret that if it's true. He's endlessly entertaining and thought provoking and best of all funny when he writes afaic. I didn't mean to dismiss that blog I felt like I noticed some of the same "writerliness" that I've coveted as a writer creeping in.

Ffs Barty don't worry about what I think, I'm of no account whatsoever afaic. I don't know how to write at all, for example. It's a mystery to me. I'm as easily influenced and gullible as they come.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Actually I felt like i was offering similar advice to that you gave me in the past, and rightly so. Probably I was just being short sighted.
 

luka

Well-known member
I think once you start asking questions like 'is this natural' 'is this really me' it becomes a never ending hall of mirrors you get trapped in, endlessly recursive.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Last night I was playing an FPS. I usually go tearing around on it and die a lot. I was deliberately playing it slow. Not running. And I was dying still, but killing as much or almost as much as dying. But - it was boring.

I had to endure the boredom in order to get better at something that would make me better at playing it in a fun way.

I bring this up because it's arguably best to experiment with all sorts of writing just to sharpen your skills.

But the peril is losing a voice.

This is more of an issue - or was for me - when I became a sort of "professional".
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I think once you start asking questions like 'is this natural' 'is this really me' it becomes a never ending hall of mirrors you get trapped in, endlessly recursive.

That's true!

It was natural of me to pontificate after all.

I don't think you want to consciously go for "a voice".

Otoh I think you can unconsciously go for a voice just by dint of wanting to be scholarly or whatever.

Writing is a headfuck. Or it is when you start analysing it. Don't analyse it. Just do it and see what comes out.
 

luka

Well-known member
I think when you start rooting around what you are looking for is 'a voice' but as I like to tell people, it needn't be 'your voice' just take any voice which is willing to talk to you, and transcribe it. This is the secret to writing.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I recently bought "Mainlines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader", having read Nick Kent's autobiography (in which he's mentored by Bangs), and then I noticed Woebot brought it up in 'TBOWoe', specifically the piece about Jamaica, so last night I read that piece — and it's so excellent it really bowled me over. Tend to think of Bangs as much more chaotic a writer, but this was a well structured report of the trip, with some insightful stuff about the music and a lot of painfully honest stuff about him feeling like a privileged tourist on a sort of poverty safari.

Reading Kent, Penman, Ian Macdonald and Woebot while quarantining is making me want to write about music again.
 

droid

Well-known member
I recently bought "Mainlines, Blood Feasts and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader", having read Nick Kent's autobiography (in which he's mentored by Bangs), and then I noticed Woebot brought it up in 'TBOWoe', specifically the piece about Jamaica, so last night I read that piece — and it's so excellent it really bowled me over. Tend to think of Bangs as much more chaotic a writer, but this was a well structured report of the trip, with some insightful stuff about the music and a lot of painfully honest stuff about him feeling like a privileged tourist on a sort of poverty safari.

Reading Kent, Penman, Ian Macdonald and Woebot while quarantining is making me want to write about music again.

It is a good piece, a great piece of travel journalism, but IIRC he gets a lot of basic stuff about people & music wrong. I think that Nico review is still my favourite thing by him.
 

droid

Well-known member
Cant remember off the top of my head, but I think it was the names of musicians, what groups they were in, genre terms, that kinda thing...
 
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