Writing Books (feasability studies)

The other day I decided I should write a book.  Perhaps even two!  It has been one of the potential engagements for this twelve months since they existed - perhaps even before that.  But I had not done much towards it beyond keeping (semi-) active writing blogs.

Just now, I decided I should actually do something about it.

That 'something', I would like to point out, is 'engaging in the process of writing (a) book)s(' - actually having a book by the end is pretty inconsequential.  Partly, though, I think that is the point - I decided I should aim to actually have a book written.

Of course, I'm not as daffy as I was fifteen years ago - I like to work out whether things are reasonable before committing to them - so I'm currently undertaking a feasability study into the writing of a book.  So far, there has been no studying - I don't think that bodes well.

In my defense, I haven't put it off - which I might have expected - I just haven't gotten around to it.  I have, however, been putting off some of the things higher up the todo list... : )

Whereto from here?

1. What on earth would I write a book about? Answer 1: Australia.  Ummm... yeah, the details are the hard part.  Answer 2: the bushfires, from a motorcyclists' perspective (including other perspectives of the motorcycling community), focussing on the process of rebuilding, regrowth and change... I don't think it would really be all that hard to nurture sprouts of inspiration and other leads - not to say the hard yards of actually writing it would be easy.

(I'm thinking about doing a bit of work and submitting an article on the latter to AMCN - if that goes well I will probably pursue it further.)

2. Re-engage with contemporary Australian literature.  Because if you're trying to write literature without engaging with literary people in the present... well you'd really need to reconsider. A little bit surprised when musing over this point that I couldn't think up a bunch of themes or potential topics with which to engage.  Kind of sad...

3. Learn how to write.  I figure that I need to know how to write by the end, not the beginning, but all the same I need to actually work on this point.  I can make words, but can I make creative-writing?

What kind of sex do you buy?

This is a random post written with a job application in mind.  No more random than other posts admittedly, just not on the usual topics...

Warning that the final joke might not work outside Australia...

We all know that sex sells, but do we appreciate the different ways that it does?  I hear people lamenting the appalling, crass or blatant use of sex and sexuality to sell things here in the West, and all I can do is shake my head.  Yes it is used, but don't talk trash about the method!  We have it good.

It takes genuinely shallow sex-advertising to wake one up to the reality of how far we have come.  And genuinely shallow is something Russia has in spades.  So many aspects of Russia's contemporary culture hark back not to communism, but to a bad 1990's American Dream.  You hear it on the radio, you see it in the 'fashion', but more strikingly than anything it is the advertising which slaps you in the face.  It is impossible to drive the streets of Moscow without being distracted by billboard-sized breasts advertising toothbrushes and automotive paint. The TV ad with the three naked nymphs playing in a field?: tissues - though admittedly there could actually be a causal link in that one.

The complex viewer-sex-product relationships which I hear attacked as blatant are anything but - the presence of sex might be unmistakeable, but its uses are increasingly ingenius, adapting to increasing desensitisation and viewer fatigue.

I look forward to the ads of ten years' time, the new ways in which the gurus will latch on to my predictable - and natural - desire to fuck.

And Russia, in ten years' time?

WANT LONGER LASTING SEX?

Foucault 2.0: power as knowledge in use

I have been reading some quite interesting stuff lately, about the changing nature of the net... did you know people are Already tolling the bells for Google's search engine?  It probably (hopefully) sounds as absurd to you as it does to me, but they are offering quite valid points.

As it turns out, I don't want to write about that at all. (Though it is on-topic.)

One particularly interesting quote - which I will dig up if anyone actually wants it - made an 'obvious' point about the power of knowledge.  They were foregrounding the importance of online structures (e.g. searches like Google's) in the practical value of the information available online. The point that was raised was that the huge resource of the mass of info on the internet might be 'accessible' to anyone, but it is completely useless if it can't be organised, found and used appropriately.  Knowledge, in other words, is not 'power' unless it can be applied.

Foucault's knowledge-power simbiosis is almost arbitrary in its method of interconnection.  Like the rhizome, it tends to connect everything to everything else, with knowledge determining the nature these connections take.

That last paragraph, you will have noticed, was full of shit.  (I'm out of practice - unable to fool myself.)

Regardless, it is important to recognise the way emphasis on application of knowledge refocusses attention away from 'knowing' things, to being able to organise information.  And in a world of increasing abundance of information, we are falling behind if we don't recognise that what is actually important is structing information to be useful, not the creation of that information in the first place. A website with a million and one useful tips is of no value if nobody reads it.  Nor is the expertise of an organisation of excessively knowledgeable professionals taking advantage of its potential if that knowledge can not be applied where it is needed.

The creation of new ways of application of knowledge will become increasingly important - corporately - and increasingly people will realise the value not of knowing, but of being able to apply.

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@JohnSBaxter

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