{"id":138667498,"date":"2023-11-08T13:30:28","date_gmt":"2023-11-08T13:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=138667498"},"modified":"2023-11-08T13:30:28","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T13:30:28","slug":"the-writer-as-paleontologist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/?p=138667498","title":{"rendered":"The Writer As Paleontologist"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I went back to the office and sat in my swivel chair and tried to catch up on my foot-dangling.” – Raymond Chandler, ‘The Big Sleep’<\/h2>

But first, your weekly <\/em>Vine: Monday was Chapter 47: \u201cCorrespondence With The Dead Part Two.\u201d<\/a> Tuesday was Chapter 48: \u201cEnd Of The Line, Western Jefferson Line.\u201d<\/a><\/em> Today is Chapter 49: \u201cCorrespondence With The Dead Part Three.\u201d<\/a> This week wraps up the 1980s, a pivotal time in the town of Vine. Listening to the podcast<\/a> is a quick way to catch up if you\u2019re behind, and don\u2019t forget to sign up for the weekly newsletter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>

It\u2019s worthwhile to show humility before your work. Maybe this is what all those invocations to The Muse were about. I\u2019ve said before I believe all the novels\/stories\/poems\/albums I am ever going to write already exist out there in the aether, waiting to be uncovered. When I die, my bibliography\/discography will be a record of what I went out and found, polished up, and presented. <\/p>

\"Jurassic<\/figure>

If \u201cthe aether\u201d is too ethereal or makes you think of a Thor<\/a><\/em> you wish you\u2019d forgotten<\/a>, think of it as like digging for fossils. You spend hours brushing dirt off a bone, thinking it\u2019s a Stegosaurus arm. You\u2019re careful, you\u2019re meticulous, and each brush of dirt and rock and debris reveals more and more pure, good Stegosaurus arm. You finally get the thing out of the ground, show it to your faithful Laura Dern, and she says \u201coh rad, a Parasaurolophus ankle!\u201d Quickly recovering\u2014can\u2019t have Laura Dern thinking you\u2019re stupid\u2014you say \u201cit sure is!\u201d Then you take it to DNA sequencing, and DNA sequencing says \u201ccongrats on your ankylosaurus spine!\u201d Eventually, you get a novel. <\/p>

A Note On Non-Empiricism<\/strong><\/p>

<\/figure>

At heart, I\u2019m too Protestant-to-the-core to be 100% serious on this wuwu stuff. At the same time, I\u2019m not so dismissive of the unseen or unexplainable. I\u2019ll never mess with a Ouija board because I like thinking it could<\/em> summon a ghost, without finding out. Life is a lot like magic realism: the empirical explanation might make the most sense, but don\u2019t discount what you don\u2019t understand. <\/p>

Regardless, to pre-empt lawyers and end-copyright weirdos: you, the artist, are the creator of your art. It\u2019s your brain doing the work. Take pride in yourself. All I\u2019m saying is that shifting my own thinking from a kind of authoritarian, God-like perception of myself as The Author<\/em> and to a more serve-at-the-pleasure-of-the-text model has taken a lot<\/em> of pressure off of editing.<\/p>

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