The majority of people who will read this sentence are experiencing a transition to springtime, though these little missives are now sent to eighty-four countries—if the analytics can be believed—so at least some of you are headed toward the crisper autumn months. But the transition itself is what I find notable, and always worth catching, as the external markers of time can be instructive.
The alternative is an endless parade of sameness, where one day bleeds into the next, where chunks of time dissipate without a thought. At least a change in the seasons can prompt a little visual clue to the slippage of time, about progress, or change, hopefully growth, and certainly decay. The old cliché about how in California all the clear days with blue skies makes the days run together is true—and that’s a mindset that you certainly want to avoid. Cycles are important, with the night different than the day, with the workday different than the weekend, and with the shift from one month to the next not merely a flip of the calendar.
Before jumping too fast into April, however, here’s a little review for the last month, which, as I look back, surprises me a bit. Apparently the orientation and role of the artist was on my mind during the last weeks in a way that I hadn’t recognized. But a look at my drafts of upcoming essays does show that the subjects are about to change dramatically—which I think is a good start for a new season.
Issue 144 — When ChatGPT Reads Roald Dahl
One major story is about how our most advanced technology sucks up all of humanity’s words and spits them back out, while another major story is about how we’re tapping the delete key in sentences that we don’t like from classic books—and that seems like a troubling combination.
Issue 145 — Transfer at 42nd Street
Forget about victims and consider, instead, the often forgotten perspective of the culprit—a personal story about a simple trip uptown in New York.
Issue 146 — Writing for Readers (🔒 Paid Subscribers)
Today’s primary currency isn’t money, nor is it even institutional power, but simply celebrity, that most vital of contemporary desires. It is a nightmare of incentives that redounds to the artist, who learns that only one subject satisfies a culture focused on celebrity: the self.
Issue 147 — Storytime
Once you start retelling your story, in fact, you notice aspects that are a tad spooky.
Issue 148 — The Secret Sauce (🔒 Paid Subscribers)
To a certain sort of mind, society is an accumulation of dials and levers and little toggle switches, which can be fiddled with at will, adjusting a bit from here, a bit from there, until the output ends up at a place that resembles perfection.
Issue 149 — Stepping through Sludge
If you’re an artist with work that lands just outside the culture—misunderstood, overlooked, and, worst of all, ignored—it is a bit like walking around a city where you can’t speak the language.
Issue 150 — If a Moment
Nothing worthwhile comes from sitting around and waiting for an epiphany.
Thank you, as always, for reading, and have a good Sunday.
Yes, the seasons and change make life interesting. Looking forward to whatever new directions you explore.
or a good Monday, if one ie on the opposite side of the globe ( Oh! And thanks for considerately mentioning the southern hemisphere's seasons too!)