Lotta Blog Entries This Month

And once again, this one comes courtesy to you of two Four Lokos and a variety of Seagram's randomly flavored girlie drinks (even if they're not really girlie, shut up, we're not going to get into that argument; drink whatever you want).

Today (or tonight, I don't really know right now) I'd like to talk about this video:

Oancitizen Trains Luke in the Ways of the Plot

Alright, yes, that's not what the video is called as pertains to its actual link, but that's what it entails. Sort of. I think. Or maybe I'm going off on a tangent.

Tangent?

Why certainly, thank you for asking!

Essentially, anyone can go out of their way to make easy works. Things with base humor, a bunch of explosions, dull dialogue, or whatever. I'm not arguing here that I'm of some upper echelon that rises above these things, but rather that I enjoy seeing art rise above them as an audience member. I'm still an amateur. I write fanfiction. But, to me, as a member of the crowd, when I see messages like this... they speak to me.

They make me think that I could be better. That I should be better. Or maybe that I should care to be better, because sometimes I don't. But, really, isn't that what it should be about? And not for the prestige or the notoriety, but for the sake of trying to be better in general? Trying to make what it is that you're making as good as it could possibly be?

I still think everything I've written is garbage, but that's just the lot of the author. Who doesn't think their own works suck?

Really, this all bogs down to what Mr. Morgan and I discussed after watching this video (insert homosexual references as needed when pertaining to Captain Morgan being real and me drinking him... or don't. This metaphor clearly got lost somewhere around the first syllable.).

The point being: Bad art is easy. Fart jokes... sure, they can be funny. And in a very clever context, they can actually be brilliant. But there's an artistic ghetto that exists in which crude humor and shock value seem to have replaced story-telling as a whole. When did that happen?

I... I don't want to be a part of it. I'd really, honestly like to be clever about what I'm both writing and parodying, but I'm oftentimes not sure if I actually have the skill to pull it off. I worry that I might not be as good as I'd like to be.

All in all, I guess that's the perfect mindset, as it drives me to do better, but still. What if the Captain is right and my skills are only as good as the grog of the high seas enable me, thus granting me the ability to fend off the pirates and deliver my French cargo to Jamaica?

Wait...

...What?

Either way, it was a cool video and it made me think. Have a nice night, y'all. More Jeremy stuffs laters.