You are correct when you say Write what you would read but which doesn’t exist.
I have always felt this is the best advice for writers. Usually expressed as write the books you want to read. The rest seems to be fashion or posing as far as I can tell.
It is interesting to think about escapism in lieu of a pop-cultural glut.
If there is one lesson that was failed to be learned by the ‘pro-consumer’ side of GamerGate is about the poison of escapism. In an attempt to move away from the world, they had escaped into places controlled by forces that hated them or would feed them sweet soma that imprisons them from the sublime suffering of being bored enough to change.
On the other hand, the ‘feminist-protectionist’ cultural critique was proven immensely shallow. In fact, I would daresay cultural critique in general. ‘Uhm-actually’ and ‘Check your’ contained no love and were subsequently pointed out as a LARP with no chance at redemption.
What Iron Age Romanticism must do is begin the story in virtual spaces and end them in real life. The reality is that bad works chase out good works. Good works in our cultural glut will not be televised.
I mean I don’t think there ever really is an original in a lot of cases. If you were Tolkien or Lewis you’d probably say all the myths are about Jesus but even then a lot of them would obviously prefigure Jesus rather than be derived sequentially, since even if Jesus the person was supposed to be around before the beginning of time the Jesus story happens later. I’m really just talking about basically evolution as a force behind storytelling, both in terms of origin and convergence, not trying to find the ultimate source for every single kind of story. Like Lord of the Rings clearly derives from mythology but it also derives from Tolkien’s experiences in the war and a lot of other things. And the Ring of the Nibelungen is mythology while Lord of the Rings is fiction, so regarding fiction, Lord of the Rings is an original source and Ring of the Nibelungen is not, because Ring of the Nibelungen is not fiction. And the biggest argument is that stories themselves are Urtypen, not that Harry Potter is somehow one of the first stories. That’s a conceptual argument, the idea that stories are more cognitively primary and people reference stories to understand ideas and analyses rather than vice versa.
You are correct when you say Write what you would read but which doesn’t exist.
I have always felt this is the best advice for writers. Usually expressed as write the books you want to read. The rest seems to be fashion or posing as far as I can tell.
Also I think this kind of approach produces better work. You become invested in the story.
I think Ray Bradbury was right when he said the worst writing is often self-conscious writing. The writer overly aware of their own writing and style.
So attempting to write something you wish someone else had written probably helps with that.
Thank you for the reference.
You managed to pack that rather tightly.
Careful unpacking required.
It is a densely nutritious meal.
Food for thought.
It is interesting to think about escapism in lieu of a pop-cultural glut.
If there is one lesson that was failed to be learned by the ‘pro-consumer’ side of GamerGate is about the poison of escapism. In an attempt to move away from the world, they had escaped into places controlled by forces that hated them or would feed them sweet soma that imprisons them from the sublime suffering of being bored enough to change.
On the other hand, the ‘feminist-protectionist’ cultural critique was proven immensely shallow. In fact, I would daresay cultural critique in general. ‘Uhm-actually’ and ‘Check your’ contained no love and were subsequently pointed out as a LARP with no chance at redemption.
What Iron Age Romanticism must do is begin the story in virtual spaces and end them in real life. The reality is that bad works chase out good works. Good works in our cultural glut will not be televised.
I mean I don’t think there ever really is an original in a lot of cases. If you were Tolkien or Lewis you’d probably say all the myths are about Jesus but even then a lot of them would obviously prefigure Jesus rather than be derived sequentially, since even if Jesus the person was supposed to be around before the beginning of time the Jesus story happens later. I’m really just talking about basically evolution as a force behind storytelling, both in terms of origin and convergence, not trying to find the ultimate source for every single kind of story. Like Lord of the Rings clearly derives from mythology but it also derives from Tolkien’s experiences in the war and a lot of other things. And the Ring of the Nibelungen is mythology while Lord of the Rings is fiction, so regarding fiction, Lord of the Rings is an original source and Ring of the Nibelungen is not, because Ring of the Nibelungen is not fiction. And the biggest argument is that stories themselves are Urtypen, not that Harry Potter is somehow one of the first stories. That’s a conceptual argument, the idea that stories are more cognitively primary and people reference stories to understand ideas and analyses rather than vice versa.