I am someone who has a very active mind and enjoys sitting with ideas, and your description of sorting out liminal monsters is one of the most relatable things I have read.
In my younger self, any space could be liminal after smoking some Mexican dirt weed, but those days died 45 years ago. I was just ruminating on how to teach struggling writers what a summary is, and came up with an anchor chart idea. A summary is a compression task, keep the meaning, lose the extra. Lately, driving through the desert is the closest I get to flying but I understand your sentiments.
Saturday mornings are better because of your essays.
Part of the reason I avoid AI text as much as humanly possible is because I know it contaminates my own thoughts with its idiosyncratic framing and I despise this. The brain absorbs any information you present it and over time builds it's thoughts off of what you feed it. Garbage in, garbage out. People will sit and talk with an AI all day and then write an essay about something and then wonder why it sounds like AI to other people. This is why. Its because their brains have been colonized with slop thinking. If you want to be a good writer you must read a ton of good writing and internalize that instead. It is an active process. You can't get away with shortcutting that process, it simply won't work for most people and it's better to not even try to do so in the first place.
I find myself somewhat allergic to been there done that ideas as well. My notes have a mininum of 300 partially-formed essays and ideas where, as soon as I realized I was slipping into the already-worn wagon tracks of a well-known idea, I lost interest in the piece completely and stopped typing.
Unfortunately, the only way to figure out that's where the idea is taking you is to do the hard and thankless work of following it. Over, and over, and over.
Also back on the ground after covering new ground with you. Ground-truthing after remote-sensing. Faith is being satisfied with what stays after those 30,000 foot soaring sessions, and trusting that what remains is what you were meant to receive.
Every important-feeling thing I read (and this essay is decidedly one) points me back to the Romantics. You've got me reading about Keats's negative capability, and sitting with his "To Autumn" and reflecting on how uncomfortable Romantic poetry makes me.
"...the process of thinking all the way through an idea is something close to psychological torture." Truer words...
We must not forget that the brain is part of the body. If you wish to grow stronger, to expand the ability of the body, you lift the weight one more time. You must push beyond.
So with thought. It must be unleashed; set free. So many of us fear to do this. Culture impeds us. Only the bad girl (I'm female) pushes the usual boundaries.
Lovely piece, you managed to compress so much in not so many words
I am someone who has a very active mind and enjoys sitting with ideas, and your description of sorting out liminal monsters is one of the most relatable things I have read.
In my younger self, any space could be liminal after smoking some Mexican dirt weed, but those days died 45 years ago. I was just ruminating on how to teach struggling writers what a summary is, and came up with an anchor chart idea. A summary is a compression task, keep the meaning, lose the extra. Lately, driving through the desert is the closest I get to flying but I understand your sentiments.
Saturday mornings are better because of your essays.
Thank you. I appreciate the line about living in and in compression. Hmmmmmm. Now there is a great writers prompt
Part of the reason I avoid AI text as much as humanly possible is because I know it contaminates my own thoughts with its idiosyncratic framing and I despise this. The brain absorbs any information you present it and over time builds it's thoughts off of what you feed it. Garbage in, garbage out. People will sit and talk with an AI all day and then write an essay about something and then wonder why it sounds like AI to other people. This is why. Its because their brains have been colonized with slop thinking. If you want to be a good writer you must read a ton of good writing and internalize that instead. It is an active process. You can't get away with shortcutting that process, it simply won't work for most people and it's better to not even try to do so in the first place.
You just beautifully illustrated why I have always hated self-help books. I have no desire to compress my life experiences.
Bravo, James.
The true writer must shine a flashlight into the dark corners that terrify most people.
I find myself somewhat allergic to been there done that ideas as well. My notes have a mininum of 300 partially-formed essays and ideas where, as soon as I realized I was slipping into the already-worn wagon tracks of a well-known idea, I lost interest in the piece completely and stopped typing.
Unfortunately, the only way to figure out that's where the idea is taking you is to do the hard and thankless work of following it. Over, and over, and over.
Also back on the ground after covering new ground with you. Ground-truthing after remote-sensing. Faith is being satisfied with what stays after those 30,000 foot soaring sessions, and trusting that what remains is what you were meant to receive.
Awesome stuff man, loved this
Every important-feeling thing I read (and this essay is decidedly one) points me back to the Romantics. You've got me reading about Keats's negative capability, and sitting with his "To Autumn" and reflecting on how uncomfortable Romantic poetry makes me.
"...the process of thinking all the way through an idea is something close to psychological torture." Truer words...
Thank you.
thank you for reminding me why i love treasure hunting🙏🙏🙏
We must not forget that the brain is part of the body. If you wish to grow stronger, to expand the ability of the body, you lift the weight one more time. You must push beyond.
So with thought. It must be unleashed; set free. So many of us fear to do this. Culture impeds us. Only the bad girl (I'm female) pushes the usual boundaries.
Tough thing to figure out, because some of my favorite writing draws from others before it. I like being able to follow the thread.
Of course, Tyler, we stand on the shoulders of giants.