Clarity · 3:36pm Apr 18th, 2023
Someone whose writing I admire has been dealing with the hopelessness of it all. How the meaningless is elevated, how rage is cherished, how expressions of contentment or joy or love are to be mocked and discarded. How those who want to offer substance lose out to those who offer only immediate gratification, whether it be confident (but wrong) answers or two minutes of hate. I offered her a little advice, which I hope helps.
But it helped me, too. It gave me a chance at clarity, a chance to crystallize what drives my creative impulses into words, and to define why I write, and who I'm writing for. Those answers are important. They give a writer (and other creative personalities) a sense of a foundation. A sense of stability, even if I know they might change in a year - or tomorrow.
Today? I write not for a community that exists (that I know of), but one I hope to meet in the future. Where the paradox of intolerance is a long-solved equation and the ideals of 'feminism' simply become common-sense. Where toxic behaviors are recognized and used as an opportunity for growth. Where we happily join in with a "Yes, and..." but are not afraid to say "No." Where we can bring back the ideas of many kinds of love: eros, agape, philia, etc. Where words do not have to come from an authority, a figurehead, or a saint to have merit, and where words from figureheads, authorities, and saints aren't discarded just because of their source.
And the audience? Honestly, it's the folks on tumblr, for the most part. As I explained to the person I admire, who wanted to find a place to talk about nostalgia, about grief but not depression, about travel but not tourism, that I knew of a place just like that so long as you also threw in thirsty sword lesbians, fans of cryptids, and full-throated support of the transgender community.
I told her as much. Alas, she said tumblr is not 'for her'. That's okay. Nowhere is for everyone, yet. But that's what I'm writing for - that place that is. In the meantime, I'll share my work here (and many other places) in the hopes of that place finding it in the future.
Say hi to my kids if you see them there.
Oof.
Interesting 🤔
A pretty cool goal, and snappily written. Let's hope we get there (and keep up writing for the audience you want).