apprecisation

Recently I bought a copy of Samuel Beckett's three novels, in one volume - Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable. He originally wrote them in French and later translated them into English, and they were hugely influential over later literature, both French and English. 

I kind of just wanted to have a copy of the novels because of their standing as literature. It's a separate thing from my appreciation for the text itself. 

aesthetics

For me the plot isn't as important as the quality of the writing, the atmosphere developed, the ideas conveyed. Take The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, for example. Those opening pages are so impressive, but what actually happens? They have a picnic on the grass and then they go inside and look at paintings, but it's so much more meaningful than just the action. 

science fiction

There's a mistake that is often made where people think that, because someone has expertise in one area, their views about other issues should carry more weight. This often happens with writers. When someone is a successful novelist, they will often start commenting on different cultural and social issues, and they're taken very seriously. 

A similar thing happens with technology. The views of people who have been in upper-level management of tech companies or who were involved in the development of cutting-edge technologies, about anything related to those technologies, are taken very seriously, when actually, about those particular issues, they aren't any more knowledgeable than anyone else. There was that case where someone who worked closely with AI thought that it had developed consciousness, and people took his view seriously because of his real expertise in AI. 

Then, recently, there have been experts predicting that AI will kill off humanity within a few years unless regulations are put in place to curtail its development. I'm not saying that there aren't issues there. I'm saying that, just because someone has worked closely with AI, doesn't mean they know what's going to happen in the future. This has always happened around technology. There's always a fear of what could happen, but is putting the brakes on development because the technology could be misused, the solution? I don't think so. 

More importantly, the idea that there is something malevolent at the heart of technology that we need to nip in the bud before it gets too powerful and there's not stopping it...that narrative is not new at all. At least since the 19th century there has been that fear of the unknown potential of science and technology and there have been stories and views about the threat they represent, and with progress, those fears proved unfounded. Fear is never going to tell you the truth. 

between a rock and an art place

I don't like art that is purely abstract all that much. I prefer works where there is a tension between realism and abstraction. 

through a glass darkly

Often, I think about the past with a sense of regret - like, why didn't I do this instead of that? Things would have gone much better if I had done 'this'. Such thoughts are pointless. 

This morning I thought of something different. I thought that, if it was possible to make any change at all to the past, I would be kinder, more understanding, more considerate. I can think of a number of situations that came up where that would have made a real difference. 

In some ways I'm just talking about maturity, so, in a way, being like that wasn't open to me at that time because I wasn't mature yet. 

kri8iv writing

It's a mystery to me why I can't write a story. I once told a friend that it's because I have to write what is true. I can't just make something up. Doing that is not just hard, it's not possible for me. I can write something experimental or poetic though. So, I could write in the style of Samuel Beckett or Virginia Woolf, but not Henry James or George Eliot. 

breakthrough

I'm not constrained in all the ways I used to be. It used to be like, something adverse happens and I go straight into being trapped in a combination of vicious cycles. Now that pattern has lost its edge and I'm aware - still kind of fleetingly to be honest - of other possibilities.