Sunday 8/21/22
I am going to spell out a plan of intention here. There are many reasons this journal exists. Why I do it. I'm not going into most of them in this entry. I am simply going to mention three of them, with a bonus. As clearly as possible.
This journal documents how the world is in this age. Which is to say, what is happening with how humans have become. How they think and act. Where society and culture stands. There are myriad reasons, for example, to read Pepys' diaries, but the documentation he provides of his time period is one of the main reasons, I'd say, for the people who do read his journals. They are not a primary reason why I personally read Pepys' diaries, but their importance in that area is real. I understand people. It's ultimately what I do. More than anything. Human nature. The relational. The words I use, that I have the ability to use, are the tools that are utilized, the same way a surgeon uses tools to heal the patient. We have never been what we are now, as a human species, a society, a culture, and it is not good.
Secondly, this journal documents what a singular artist is trying to do to change where we are at now as a species, a society, a culture. What their response is to that age. The solutions they attempt to effect, what they believe is possible. What they are working towards, what their work works towards.
Thirdly, this journal exists to document the shift from how things were, to what they looked like as they got better, which also ties in to the second intention of this journal. So you get, in the end, a before, a during, an after.
That is the plan. Or part of it.
As the bonus reason for this entry: this journal makes a case, by presenting evidence, facts, examples, and stark, shocking contrasts, and thus revealing truths, of what the publishing industry, in this age, is like, so that it will be replaced by something better, even if that thing still goes by the name of publishing. Where the world is, is in part due to this industry, which has killed off the most vital art of all, a crucial activity that is a huge part of being human, because it fosters that very humanness. Has played its part in making it so that no one thinks critically. Has hastened the breakdown of language and communication. The ability to think about ideas. To face truths. To face the self honestly. To possess empathy. Understand purpose. The necessity of open communication. Vulnerability. Connection. Real connection is rooted in narrative. In story. There is nothing more fundamentally human. With what this industry now is, there's a trickle down effect that impacts non-readers when no one in a society does the things I just listed, things which are facilitated by reading and reading works that are worth reading. There's none of that positive influence, that societal rub-off. Everything becomes fragmented, spiteful, self-loathing Babble, where depression is rampant, truth is loathed, and self-hatred is the norm, as is loneliness, emptiness, a passing of an existence, rather than the living of a life.
There are other things, of course. This journal is intended as a unique work of art, a self-contained, massive book. It is intended to document a unique artist, what they did, how they thought, when they composed what they composed, how they composed it, their advancements, inventions, what they knew of art and life and humanity. It's a saga of endurance and love and hope. It's a lot of things, done for a lot of reasons.
But I want to be very clear--even didactic--about the four laid out above. I take great pains with them. They are not done for the sake of being done, but rather for change. Change to the good, and for the greater good.
If someone wishes to say, "You overthought that, it doesn't merit a mention," I'd counter by saying I don't overthink anything. When we tell someone they're doing that, it's usually because they're dwelling on an idea that is of small consequence and doesn't impart knowledge, and is also taking them away from what they should be doing. Clearly, nothing takes me away from what I am doing, what I am creating, because I am creating unprecedented volumes of work. The seemingly smallest example of something may say so much. I'd even suggest that is one of the core truths of human existence, when we are able to see it for what it is.
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