1. I see reading as a way to subconsciously ingrain in my mind what good writing is. When I reread something I've written, I either think "oh, that sounds good," or "yuck, I'm changing that." I judge this mainly based on intuition, but it also helps to imagine myself reading my writing in someone else's book. If I saw my sentences in my everyday reading, would I think it was good or bad? Being able to visualize this means I have to have lots of reading experience to draw on.
In addition, the goodness of writing ends up being determined largely by how people respond to it (there's no objective judge, after all). So you can look at what people consider "good" (by reading), and adopt these traits into your own writing.
2. Whenever I'm really concerned about something in the world, the root cause of it always seems to be some kind of brainwashing of people. When I see elementary-school teachers indoctrinating innocent little children, for example, or advertisements using subliminal messaging rather than telling you anything about their products, I feel that the nature of truth is being warped beyond repair. If "good" and "bad" are forced upon everyone from devious outside sources looking to obtain money or political support, then every person's mind becomes a function of what those devious outside sources want them to think. And then our humanity goes out the window, because no one can make good judgements. This is why I get worried when I hear "It takes a village to raise a child" --if the community raises everyone, then the result is a village full of zombie clones. Hoorah.
3. I once saw a piece of "modern art" that consisted of nothing more than a blank canvas on a wall. This inspired me to try and figure out why in the world anybody could consider it to be art. I can look over at the white wall behind my computer and see a similar picture (and there are even some stains and cracks to liven up the image). I'm all in favor of simplicity in art, but it gets completely ridiculous if artists take it to this extreme. Anyone whose sense of beauty is inspired by this piece would probably collapse from sensory overload if they walked outside. This kind of art does succeed, however, in blurring the line between art and not-art. And it inspired me to write an entire paragraph about it, which I guess is an accomplishment.
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4 comments:
I totally agree with what you say in your #2 (the things that bother you), especially what you said about advertising. Sometimes, entire corporations' successes are built upon the manipulation of children. When I read Fast Food Nation last year for APAL, they talked about how McDonalds actually hires psychologists to help them create their commercials... I think there's something wrong with that...
Ahhhhh! Modern art! Yes, the first person who splatter pointed was cool, and so was the FIRST person who colored an entire canvas red and called it something like "sunset anger".
Secondly, advertising=lies! Haha- I heard they put vaseline on burgers to make them look juicier. Yuck! Corporate messaging affects out lives WAY too much!
Like Stef, I agree with what you said for the things that concern you. Advertising scares me sometimes. I didn't realize how brainwashing they are until I began having to resort to Saturday morning cartoons (or now fake pop stars trying to live two different lives) and I began seeing lots, i mean LOTS of commercials for sugary cereals and toys and fast food chains.
I also have to say that modern art you analysis of modern art is pretty much all that there is to be said about modern art. I don't get it, and I usually understand strange and unusual things, but modern art is way beyond my league apparently.
ps: sorry for my the bad grammar in the above post, i'll try and proofread next time, i just don't want to got into the effort of deleting and fixing it.
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