new blog post - the venn diagram of where you're from and who you are

[oats]

http://finitelifethenovel.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/where-im-calling-from/


dead man El Pancake Certain Diode evil big baby Zen Witty Wonka Split Figurative sraL YDK The Mind Assassin Bags Pinot Grij Soulstice NYCSPITZ Orc Vulgar Sharp Nine

[Split]

I liked the part about boxing people up and compartmentalizing yourself. Finding out which parts of yourself came from where, it kind of all falls under the theme that no one is original. I wish you'd expounded more on this process of sorting out your identity. People can put YOU in a box- oh yeah, that's the short kid that likes golf. Boom, identity masked. But they can also subsort. "Oh yeah, that's the short kid that likes golf... one of the most sarcastic people I know". That sort of compartmentalization always leads to a discussion of why, when, and how... like a quick character analysis of your friends. It's this projected image of ourselves we always seem to have on our minds, when we reflect on our own personality and identity. And we can never fully keep track of the soup of traits and characteristics our friends are tasting.

[oats]

Thanks, Split, that's an interesting offshoot for sure. Do you find yourself asking those kinds of questions about others in your personal life? Or do you tend to settle on the simplifications?

[dull boy]

Cool.

[sral]

lmao i figured this was gonna be a link to some survey or something so we could all do our own and some diagram would put it together

wrong.

[Split]

Thanks, Split, that's an interesting offshoot for sure. Do you find yourself asking those kinds of questions about others in your personal life? Or do you tend to settle on the simplifications?

When people change, I like to know why. Some change their whole personality in a month, some grow but stay the same person (best kind of growth), and some never change at all- for better or for worse.

I think people adapt to fully realize who they want to be, and I have nothing but respect for these people- unless they lose confidence and retract into who they were before. Those are the worst people.

But I can't judge too harshly as long as you're doing you.

[oats]

lmao i figured this was gonna be a link to some survey or something so we could all do our own and some diagram would put it together

wrong.

Lol interactive blogging, coming soon.


Split I see that, at least in terms of people who are close to me. I honestly could give two shits about jyoti pate from high school - it's always so much easier to typecast her as that weird goth kid who spoke elvish and loved simple plan. But that was my appeal, I suppose, to not take the complexities of others for granted based off of cosmetic definitions we assign, since we tend to buck those definitions ourselves (even when they're accurate).

[veritas]

i do not think I am going to read this, because the responses reek of intellectual elitist hipsterism.

carry on my wayward son...there will be peace when you are done.

[oats]

i do not think I am going to read this, because the responses reek of intellectual elitist hipsterism.

carry on my wayward son...there will be peace when you are done.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised if you do choose to read it. asks more questions than it attempts to answer, something you can surely appreciate.

[veritas]

maybe you hurt my ego by not choosing to @me? Did we consider that. Of course not dad. stop arguing with mom! leave her alone! I hate when yall fight! and that is why I turned to drugs in the first place. I am Walden.

[Vulgar]

But what if I wanna fit?

[oats]

But what if I wanna fit?

if you wanna fit, PUT SPIT


zygote

[Vulgar]

Lord Zygote... where hast thou goneth?

[oats]

I miss him. there was a robotic charm to his punctuality

[PancakeBrah]

I read this, oats.

[oats]

I read this, oats.

I appreciate the time, truly. feel free to share thoughts/feedback if you would like.

[Certain]

You were a bit more streamlined and focused in this, and you brought things to a strong close. Thoughtful and well-done.

[Destroyer]

also read
enjoyed

[PancakeBrah]

I agree with Certain. Nothing negative to say. I thought motherfuckin was out of place and jarred me a bit. Aside from that I liked it.

GOOD ON YOU OATSY

[oats]

I agree with Certain. Nothing negative to say. I thought motherfuckin was out of place and jarred me a bit. Aside from that I liked it.

GOOD ON YOU OATSY

Appreciate it. Funny you mention that, I waffled a bit on saying it like that, chose to do so for the humor. I've heard mixed reviews on it, good to hear.

[dull boy]

I like cheese.

[Certain]

I like cheese.

I liked your original post and dislike this form of cowardice. Say what you think.

Open Mic posts are little more than that, anyway. We're not changing the world. We're thinking about it and hoping to expand our own horizons through those thoughts.

[dull boy]

Say what you think lol I think all manner of things, and not saying them has nothing to do with cowardice. Criticism is good, but I didn't care for how it came off, mostly because I tried to be somewhat interesting as opposed to diplomatic or something like that.

K?

Sorry. Saying k was mean. I'm gonna edit it out. K?

[Certain]

Diplomacy is irrelevant here. We're all assholes.

[dull boy]

Also, I mostly dislike cheese.

[Certain]

Yeah, I'm not that big a fan of cheese, either.

[dull boy]

I disagree yet again. Our personas and personalities here influence all who come in contact with them and I'd prefer to promote good over interesting. Real over entertaining.

But entertaining often gets the best of me when I'm making sentences for people to look at.

[veritas]

Describe.

[oats]

I'm confused. dull boy I would genuinely appreciate any insight and feedback you have, regardless of how diplomatic it comes across as. I love cheese tbh.

[veritas]

Cheese is mere subterfuge at this point. He plays chess whilst you play checkers.

[dull boy]

It's nothing. I said something that had little to do with your piece directly and was more about how we write to masturbate and I called your writing masturbation, which was overly harsh, and by saying that I don't mean you're too pussy to handle it, but that it was just more crass than I wanted to project. I'm laying in bed thinking about how nearly all new literature or anything we see really was generally made with a purpose of consumption. We have thoughts and ideas, which are best at inception, and only muddled by our attempts to feed them to others. I think maybe our packaging of ideas and thoughts take away from personal revelations that could build ourselves into better ideas of ourselves for those we directly impact. Our maybe that's just me and I'm projecting. I hate how the internet used to be a world that existed at a desk in a corner that only existed when you were at that desk, and now it's constantly in my pocket. Leave me alone, I need to sleep.

[dull boy]

All of that is poorly constructed for public consumption. Half thoughts you'll only half get if you're in my brain. I mean, if someone has an eye on public review then the idea becomes one influenced by pride and all sorts of other nonsense. Whereas personal thought not concerned with anything is better and that giving our ideas to everyone only waters them down. There's too much of that these days. Too much in the sense that the balance is out of wack and I'm afraid of it's impact. I guess everything changes, tho, and this is the new normal and one day it will be old and some young kid from now will be talking then about how they're afraid of this or that and how it will impact yadayada.

Seriously. Stop. I need to sleep.

[oats]

It's nothing. I said something that had little to do with your piece directly and was more about how we write to masturbate and I called your writing masturbation, which was overly harsh, and by saying that I don't mean you're too pussy to handle it, but that it was just more crass than I wanted to project. I'm laying in bed thinking about how nearly all new literature or anything we see really was generally made with a purpose of consumption. We have thoughts and ideas, which are best at inception, and only muddled by our attempts to feed them to others. I think maybe our packaging of ideas and thoughts take away from personal revelations that could build ourselves into better ideas of ourselves for those we directly impact. Our maybe that's just me and I'm projecting. I hate how the internet used to be a world that existed at a desk in a corner that only existed when you were at that desk, and now it's constantly in my pocket. Leave me alone, I need to sleep.

I'm gonna write a post about this. No joke. Not because it's ironic to do so, but those are thoughts I've grappled with before, since my ultimate ambition is to write fiction for a living. Hard to avoid that mental teeter totter of whether or not your writing loses value when you push for it to be read (inorganically, like posting links on a message board).

I appreciate and respect your thoughts. I don't want people to read my shit and say yay you're awesome good job. I want discussion sparked, thoughts provoked, etc. Crass or not (I tend to think not), your input is excellent.

[big baby]

fucking gone @ everybody ignoring v. This nigga is seriously stupid. "HES PLAYING CHESS AND U R PLAYING CHESCKERKS" stfu dude. Smart people are conversing,a nd you're just not that smart, v. dumb ass nigga.

[dull boy]

http://www.iflscience.com/space/our-home-supercluster-gets-map-and-name

The internet won't leave me alone.

I'm gonna write a story about it, so everyone can be like, 'yeah!' And they'll laugh 'cause it'll be funny, 'cause I'll talk to the internet like it's my wife in bed and she likes kicks me and shit or nags me about things wives nag Joe Blow guy I want to relate to me about. They'll be like, 'this guy has insight and I find his personality appealing' and then I'll become part of him and influence the people he influences sorta and it'll be all fucking life altering in some butterfly effect kinda deal. Shit yeah. Changing people. It's my life source. Be more like me 'cause I'm better than you, but only because I'm smarter and shit or something. Fuck.

[Certain]

dull boy, you sound a bit like Kurt Cobain. No one makes you share your music with the world. It's a choice. The hope is that the consumers, who must consume in order to be consumers, will relate and find meaning in your words. That's what oats attempted to do here, to put his own identity questions on the table for a further discussion or even internalized thought for those who read them. In doing so, he's opening up and getting that masturbatorial release but also allow others to see what they're missing.

Masturbating is healthy.

[dull boy]

Yeah.

I'm not saying it to say he shouldn't do it, or that's not what my initial thought was before I started getting all entertainery. I was more talking about, and what I'm usually talking about, is whether or not it's good for us as a culture/society/species to more often than not have our thoughts being produced (by ourselves) into something for others to hear and understand. I know that's just basic communication, but sometimes I wonder about our language and how we need to learn telepathy or something, but not so much in that we can hear our each other's thoughts, because that's still language, but feel each other's feels... lol

[dull boy]

I really just don't enjoy how we are. I think it's counter productive. Or maybe it isn't, and I'm just in the future. Or maybe I'm part of the productivity, naturally.

Mental illness be running rampant.

[Certain]

But is the exercise to convey our thoughts to the consumers or to enable the consumers to create their own thoughts?

[dull boy]

I'm falling asleep. Maybe tomorrow.

[Certain]

Vintage dull boy.

evil big baby, never get old and tired and grumpy like dull boy.

[oats]

I agree that if the motivation is simply the ego stroke, attention seeking OMG U SO SMART, then it's hollow and unhealthy, feeding into the cultural narcissism I think you're referring to. That's why I write daily for my personal life. Nobody else reads it, though admittedly I have fantasized about a grandson of mine going through my journals after I'm dead and putting the pieces together. Anyway.

The point of writing, or art in general, to me is to experience a shared humanity. All of us have distinct lives in the specifics, which makes us unique, but I truly believe in certain universal feelings, thoughts, etc. If I'm thinking this shit, surely SOMEONE else has to as well. And once you pinpoint the commonalities, you explore the crevasses that make people different. It's ultimately curiosity that compels me, if I'm being honest.

But certain said it best - masturbation is good for you.

[big baby]

tbh it's just how things are said lol. ill boy gets praised for his honesty but says it with a pat on your back and a smile, as morose as it is. I say the same thing but I call you a FUCKA idiyote and I'm psycho, evil possesses sheep dick riding baby faggot. it's laughable, I get why Dallie is the way he is lol. he actually gets more praise this way. the masturbation he speaks of. idc honestly. I know I'm better. it's just laughable. I enjoy both spectrums tho

[oats]

I @'d you bb. I always want to hear your thoughts, scattered as they may be at times.

[Split]

It's nothing. I said something that had little to do with your piece directly and was more about how we write to masturbate and I called your writing masturbation, which was overly harsh, and by saying that I don't mean you're too pussy to handle it, but that it was just more crass than I wanted to project. I'm laying in bed thinking about how nearly all new literature or anything we see really was generally made with a purpose of consumption. We have thoughts and ideas, which are best at inception, and only muddled by our attempts to feed them to others. I think maybe our packaging of ideas and thoughts take away from personal revelations that could build ourselves into better ideas of ourselves for those we directly impact. Our maybe that's just me and I'm projecting. I hate how the internet used to be a world that existed at a desk in a corner that only existed when you were at that desk, and now it's constantly in my pocket. Leave me alone, I need to sleep.

I think it's comforting.

Take those harsh & sublime ideas, make them desirable. Approachable. At least relatable. Are you really watering them down? Ideas need to take seed and then grow. It used to be only a few ideas could get passed through literature... whatever your church could read to you, if you were poor and uneducated. The few stiff novels you could wade through for several months at a time. Yeah, reading used to take ages, at least for pleasure. But now people will read a novel in the span of a week, and read dozens of articles a day. The sheer volume of writing available at anyone, everyone's fingertips collapsed to a singularity, tripled, and then exploded into a microverse inside a square glass jar that sits in your front left pocket and goes to sleep quietly on your night stand. Maybe, the number of ideas seeded in our brains quintupled. Pop media, yellow journalism. Just weeds. Now, when you want an idea to grow- you must nurture it, carve a space for it in your day and your mind, and visit every couple days as thousands of more ideas are flung down into your brain's soil. The author can do whatever he wants to make it a nice little packet of seeds, but something's gotta make it stand out in a sea of free bargain bin variety seeds.

Sadly, the novel is a novelty and literature is rapidly dying. Who can spend $25 to sit on a couch, doing nothing but shuffling paper in a set order? Anyone smart enough to get it for free or given to them, and carve out the time to do so.

The general consensus seems to be that people are getting dumber and more sensationalized and writing to match, out of necessity. I think the exact opposite is true, because information is king and we've just unwittingly mainlined it into our society.

[oats]

Split I don't think literature is dying at all. The bound book yes, but not reading and writing literature. If anything technology makes people read more than ever now, though the nature of what/how we read is changing dramatically. I honestly believe short stories, novellas, and creative nonfiction are all on an upward trajectory. English is still one of the most populated majors in universities.

Like language itself, writing is transforming to meet the shorter attention spans that people have - there are so many options (for reading and for leisure in general), that most people won't finish something if they aren't instantly hooked. I've had short stories published that are ~1200 words and my professors say are great, and when I share them with other people they say TLDR. That's why input from NC is so valuable to me, because it's representative of a wider demographic than my old college profs. I think a balance can be achieved.

[uh-oh]

my mothers family came to the americas from germany in the 1700's, they helped settle the ohio valley and one was a brady ranger. they were poor, soldier types, on into regular working class folks.

my fathers family came to the americas in the late 1800's early 1900's from italy and im guessing england. no one really knows my fathers fathers heritage but the nme has origins in england so i'll roll with that. my fathers grandfather, his mothers father was a dockworker in newark? whatever the big port town is in new jersey. somehow at his funeral there were over a thousand people and a flower car. my pops thinks he mustve been mafia. i doubt it but what do i know.

those are the origins of my gene pool. german plebians in the heartland of america, indian killing savages who took scalps. and italian/english weirdos who never made it off the east coast.

my journey began in phoenix arizona, september 29th 1989. i lived there until 1991, my father who wasnt in any bike clubs, was friends with a few dirty dozen members who ended up getting brought into the hells angels. he lent his buddy "flash" his truck to go pick up a stripper to bring back to the dirty dozen clubhouse. it was supposed to be for a bachelor party. turns out it was for a group rape.

my father learning of this, and his truck being in the police description decided phoenix was getting a little to crazy, and in 1991 moved us to tampa florida.

we lived there for around 5-6 years. i grew. my dark brown hair was bleached blonde by the florida sun, and i got bit by a spider and almost died.

when i was around 7-8 my mom decided we were all moving to ohio. she has family here, and for some reason my father decided ok lets go.

we moved to canton ohio, and i've been here ever since. while i've lived in massillon, akron, perry, and canton the area code has been the same.

ohio is my home. ohio is where im from.

im a dirty filthy flyover midwestern to the core.

my past means nothing as 99 percent of my memories are from here.

ohio da god

[uh-oh]

in summary

IT AINT WHERE YOU FROM ITS WHERE YOU AT
SO WHEN YOU WALKING THROUGH HARLEM FAGGOT WATCH YA BACK

[Certain]

Split I don't think literature is dying at all. The bound book yes, but not reading and writing literature. If anything technology makes people read more than ever now, though the nature of what/how we read is changing dramatically. I honestly believe short stories, novellas, and creative nonfiction are all on an upward trajectory. English is still one of the most populated majors in universities.

Like language itself, writing is transforming to meet the shorter attention spans that people have - there are so many options (for reading and for leisure in general), that most people won't finish something if they aren't instantly hooked. I've had short stories published that are ~1200 words and my professors say are great, and when I share them with other people they say TLDR. That's why input from NC is so valuable to me, because it's representative of a wider demographic than my old college profs. I think a balance can be achieved.

Mostly accurate. Split's analysis seems straight out of 1994 or 1984 (the year, not the novel) or 1974. But the Internet and handheld devices have led to a boom in terms of quantity of published writing but also in terms of reading.

What undeniably has decreased has been the subjective quality of what people are reading. It used to be that several editors would parse anything before it was published to ensure that it was good enough to engage people. Now we spend time reading Tumblr posts by pseudonym-bearing authors. That's not to say that there can't be great work in those Tumblr posts, but it's not as heavily parsed and scrutinized now that it costs nothing to publish.