RANT 1/18/03
Often the hardest thing about writing is simply getting started. For centuries, writers have complained about the daunting image of a blank piece of paper or, in our technological age, the blank computer screen. Sometimes, however, it seems that the real problem is that there may not be anything for them to say. But, after all, how much is there left to say these days? Writers and critics have long stated that there are really only three or four plots in the world and everything is pretty much derived from there. As for essays, how often can one complain about such naturally obvious things as the crookedness of politicians or the unfairness of this world. In the end, all anyone is really talking about is what’s important to them at that particular time in their life. Harlan Ellison used to call this something like, “here is the world from my viewpoint today,” or words to that effect. And that, after all, is the most that anyone can say.
With the passage of time, that viewpoint can, and often does, change. What is important to someone at 12 years of age is forgotten at 20, barely remembered at 30, fondly missed at 40, and bitterly regretted at the end of life. So what does this all mean? Not all that much except that time, in it’s incessant march forward, seems to pick up speed and energy like some mad, runaway roller coaster which, if you’re lucky, you get to survive until the natural end of the ride. If you’re not lucky, the car derails and your ride is cut short. So much for taking one’s time.
So, today, here is the report from the world from my viewpoint today.
It’s just the beginning of January of the new year of 2003. This is my 40th year of life on this planet and, like so many others who reach that point, find myself questioning many things about my life. Did I make the right decisions when I was young? Did I take the right path? What would have happened if I hadn’t done X or had done Y instead? It’s this kind of thinking that can really drive you mad if you let it.
So I try not to think about it too much and think forward instead. What will happen tomorrow if I choose A today instead of B? What will those choices bring about later? Where will I be a year from today? Three years? Five years? The only difference in thinking about this is the fact that these are choices you have yet to make unlike the past which cannot be changed. It can be forgotten, apologized for, celebrated or ignored, but the past is pretty much fixed. Tomorrow is what has yet to be made. With that in mind, I’m taken to evaluating my life and determining what needs to be changed and made better. Primary among them is my writing. This year, I’m working on better positing myself as a writer and particularly a writer of comics.
My life with comics goes back over twenty years now to the point where I can’t even remember when I read my first comic. Since then, I’ve drifted back and forth from comics but never really left for very long. I’ve sold my collection a few times and have built it back again. My current collection is probably the biggest I’ve ever had but still pales to the collection I sold back in 1981 to buy, of all things, an electric guitar set-up. (Gimmie a break, I was 19 and into music and thought it would be a way to meet girls.) So here we are 20 years later. I don’t have the guitar any more, it never did help me meet any girls, I’m not a rock star, but I still read comics. Strangely enough, I still like a lot of the things that I did when I was 20 and, in future columns, I’ll talk about some of them and about what’s going on from my viewpoint today.
Along the way, we’ll talk about television, movies, pop culture, some music and just the general difficulties in living in today’s reality. So stay tuned because the viewpoint changes every day and “objects in mirror are closer than they appear”.