Letters to the Editor
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Try Empathy and Find Happiness
Cary's exactly right on this.
Instead of putting all of your effort into being interesting, focus on being interested. Empathy is a big key to happiness and fulfillment and it is instrumental in letting go of grudges and anger. Put yourself in other people's shoes and you'll learn so much. You'll probably gain a lot of respect for them and yourself and in turn, you'll get a lot of respect back.
When you start truly learning about others, you'll find we all share more of the same hopes, dreams, fears and loves than than we do different ones.
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too familiar
LW,
Speaking as someone twice your alleged age, I have to admit that your letter reminded me of me at that age. And yes, whenever I sat down to write about my lot in life, I sounded like a snotty, clueless brat. But in fact, I was shy, relatively polite, and I kept my disdain for the mundanes of the world down to a whisper. Truth is, I was afraid I wasn't very original after all, that the work I was producing would never be original. And I was afraid that everybody knew it.
What I've learned in the years since then is that it's very easy for a child to feel special, and for an artist in his or her adolescence to feel as though their specialness, their originality, is so misunderstood as to be potentially tragic. Unfortunately, that has a lot more to do with being an adolescent than being an artist. You're now at the age where all of that is being put to the test. Maybe you are a barrista, or maybe you're the lowest rung in the Design Dept. at some publisher. If you're 26 and not making money off the qualities that makes you so original, well then... maybe you're not. But that isn't necessarily the indicator.
On the other hand, an original artist produces original work. Their appearance and especially their attire is completely beside the point. Also, I know plenty of people in their 40s and 50s -- some living off their creative endeavors, others not -- who have maintained their unconventional tastes and original personality traits in spite of the responsibilities of adult life. And they do it without marginalizing themselves or condescending to people... simply because they are civil, decent people. And because their love of art and ideas was genuine enough that it actually survived all the travails of growing up and living among people with different tastes and values.
And finally, get over the idea that art can only be great if it is "original." J. S. Bach did very little to transform or break free from tried-and-true Baroque forms, but he wrote more great music than just about anybody who ever lived. Ever.
Oh, and yes to Radiohead.
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Normal Food is People!!
There is merely one way for you to escape this cycle of alienation you find yourself in, and that is to dive into a normal. And I mean literally... you must MURDER a normal and smear yourself in his or her mix of blood, bile and fecal matter. You may then opt to feed a meat pie to other normals, thereby recreating their cycle of mutual submission, albeit unwittingly on their part.
Only then, through MURDER, will you find your inner normalcy and achieve equilibrium with your surroundings. Say it, your mantra: "Cut Them, Cook Them, Eat Them, Join Them ... Cut Them, Cook Them, Eat Them, Join Them ... Cut Them, Cook Them, Eat Them, Join Them"
... although, I have to admit... perhaps I have spoken too soon... anyone who goes about screeching "RADIOHEAD SUCKS" seems more banal than unique. Perhaps you should step into my pie, my dear.
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DQuintanaNY
is 126.7% correct.
The most radical thinkers, aspirers, artistes, creators are often mundane dressers or they reluctantly put on some sort of plumage in order to not disappoint their fans and play along with the part.
On the other foot, walk down to the Village any given weekend and whip a Radiohead CD in a random direction and you are absolutely bound to hit another talentless poser who thinks they are unique and dress unique and who also happens to be a Radiohead fan--- said fan is then thinking, "...and hey! A Radiohead CD just fell out of the sky. Must be a sign from Moloch or my Fave god of the day that I am the chosen unique artistic one!"
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More appropriate than Radiohead
I am a sensitive artist...
I am a sensitive artist.
Nobody understands me because I am so deep.
In my work I make allusions to books that nobody else has read,
Music that nobody else has heard,
And art that nobody else has seen.
I can't help it
Because I am so much more intelligent
And well-rounded
Than everyone who surrounds me.
I stopped watching tv when I was six months old
Because it was so boring and stupid
And started reading books
And going to recitals
And art galleries.
I don't go to recitals anymore
Because my hearing is too sensitive
And I don't go to art galleries anymore
Because there are people there
And I can't deal with people
Because they don't understand me.
I stay home
Reading books that are beneath me,
And working on my work,
Which no one understands
I am sensitive...
I am a sensitive artist...
-- King Missile
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criminy.
Radiohead are mundane dressers. Those guys look like they should be bagging groceries at the Food Lion. All this emphasis on clothing as "self-expression" is just more consumer-culture bullcrap; original thinkers tend to reject it.
They must be having sled races in hell -- brightstar65 is spot-on here. LW, just do your work, and quit worrying about your Inner Being and your Outer Clothing. The proof is in the pudding.
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brightstar 65
Thanks for the compliment. Your post was also right on. And "talentless butthole who hates people", man, I died laughing.
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I thought I was lucky for having parents who didn't push me out there to work as soon as I was legally old enough,
I'd question the theory that the only way to get to know oneself is to be unemployed and spend the day thinking.
I'd say rather, that the best way to learn what you've got is to get out there and be self-sufficient.