benlehman | (no subject)

(no subject)

A lot of people recently talking about what I should be doing, how I should be doing my art, what I owe to them and a "community" that only exists in our heads and hearts.

Remember what Chris said once: No one has a right to your body but you. I think it goes double this way: No one has a right to your mind but you.

Remember that people beholden to the Man want you to be more like them.

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Here's what you should be doing: whatever the hell you feel driven to do. :)

Thanks.

We should play Drifter's Escape together. Of course, you've already got the moral of the story.

Hell, yeah. I ran into this all the fucking time back when I took creative writing courses. "Well, you shouldn't be wasting your time on science fiction..." According to who, now? Why am I obligated to write what you consider valid?

In this case it's like "you must do your writing in public! For the good of the community!"

Gar...

Whatever. I write in public for purely marketing reasons, to build buzz on my games. Otherwise I could care less.

OK, that's not entirely true. I like the positive feedback I get, too. Helps motivate me.

Yeah, I just don't get the thing where I'm like "So I'm working on this game that addresses this in way X" and someone's like "Where? If I can't see it right now it has no value!"

Promotion is fine. Entitlement is not.

This is more echo chamber, but yeah, I write games for me. It's way to much effort for a meager reward to do for any other reason.

Share your best stuff for free? Why in gods' names would you do that?

Ok, I can see a bunch of reasons, but only if they're valid for you.

What? No. Stupid.

Huh. Thanks.

...

*thinks long and hard*

welcome.

Where is that icon from?

Be well.

I made it from some random image on google image search.

The failing of the pedestal is that you're never beholden to be yourself, but to be what others want or need you to be. People get really upset when you decide you'd rather be yourself...

Yup!

It's frustrating. When someone I respect comes to me talking about "artists" and "art" and he means me, I want to believe him. But then he says shit about what artists do and how artists act that I just can't believe.

You know, that's what pushed me away from the spoken word scene- when the relationship between the artist and audience stops being one of sharing the art and one where you become the "tube" through which they hope to squeeze the art out of... Or in reverse, when the artist sees the audience to be the tube out of which attention, approval, reputation, validation, sex, whatever is to be squeezed out in return (see: Macktivism).

Which is not to say that these things don't always play a part in the arts (they do), but when the art stops holding value except as a means of exchange to get those things... Usually the loss of respect for the art is hand in hand with the loss of respect for each other as people (artists & audiences).

Interesting thought about "The Man", he always wants you to give up something, starting with boundaries...

Yeah. To me, the practice of my art is solely and entirely about establishing intimate connections to other human beings re: stuff we care about. If artist/artist, artist/audience, audience/artist, or audience/audience relationships can help establish that connection, then that's good. If they're not helping, they shouldn't be there. *sigh*

The last bit is from the Drifter's Escape. The whole rule is this:
People beholden to the Man want you to become more like them. People beholden to the Devil want you to do things that benefit them. Decent people want you to do what's right.

That really sums up what I haven't had words to express- does the art help us connect as humans and the human experience or does it disconnect us?

And yeah, we had a bit of discussion about Drifter's Escape on that. I didn't know about the Devil folks, but that makes a lot of sense. You can put me on the pre-order list right the fuck now.

You're #1.

I'm hoping to be in proof-land by my brother's birthday (may 17th) and printed and shipping by my birthday (june 12th.) These deadlines are ambitious but not impossible.

I'm not one of the voices telling you what to do and don't plan to be.

That said, you didn't get where you are alone. You climbed up the backs of other people, learned from their mistakes, and benefited from associations with this group of people (dare I say "community"?) in many ways: emotionally, creatively, financially.

You can take everything they've given you and be content with that and never give them anything in return. Presumably, even, you've already given them something in return. As long as you feel you've given as much as you've taken, hey, cool. If not, think about it and keep giving back.

Hey, Adam, how's Verge coming? You definitely aren't one of those voices.

I do give back. I try to do it in ways that aren't public. Like I don't ever talk about giving to charity.

The issue is when someone says start telling me how I need to write my games, how my creative process needs to function. That's not cool.

yrs--
--Ben

I'd rather have the cool thing you create than get my vicarious jollies watching you sweat over it. If there's a truth about art, it's that no two people do it the same way.

I wish you much luck in finding your own bliss.

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