The aesthetic of writing

Last post I talked about finding joy in writing. I didn’t talk about why it was so important to find joy – it seems pretty obvious to me that the publishing industry is constructed to intentionally grind down writers in the modern era, much as many industries are. But I did mention social media, and recently I came across Leigh Bardugo’s succinct and perceptive TEDx on that very subject.

One of the things that Bardugo does not mention in this lecture is the rise of AI. To be fair, she was trying to inspire folks actually on the path of trying to hone their craft, but I do think that it is, in the modern era, really hard to have this conversation and not talk about AI. AI, after all, is about eliminating the discomfort of learning and producing, streamlining so that you can (in theory) create more and more to keep up with the algorithms. It is the natural outcome of the mindset that Bardugo exposes and dissects in this talk. This is, to put it explicitly, the mindset of wanting to perform being a writer and gain social (and monetary) compensation for the performance. It’s insidious, and it worms its way into every creative’s life to some extent. I suspect novelists are particularly susceptible to it because of how long a novel takes.

Anyway, I suspect Bardugo says it better than I do. Take a listen if you have the time.