Category: Hindsight 2020

Angst For The Memories — Write Write Write Edition

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I’m officially in the second act of the third draft of my first novel, I have come to the conclusion that I have to re-imagine on a structural basis, pretty much everything. And that is going to slow me down.

The key thing I have to game out is cause and effect. The second draft of the novel, upon reflection, doesn’t really have a lot of cause and effect. Things just…happen. There’s no this then happens, but, therefore, this thing happens.

As such, I have to brood.

I have to reimagine the story — which is going to stay the same in a general way — so that there is a very clear set of events that cause each other to happen one right after the other. This is causing me to stare out into space and contemplate not just my plans for this novel, but reality in general.

Anyway. I hope to not only re-imagine this novel, but to read other people’s work, watch more TV and movies AND begin to game out not only back up ideas, but some of the sequels to this first novel.

Nobody, but nobody takes me seriously.

I hate to admit it, but I feel a little bit like a literary version of Donald Trump, given how manuscript consultants tend to shit on my dreams.

It Was A Long Time Ago & Nobody Cares Anymore…Virginia Press Edition

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Somewhere in the multiverse, there is a version of me that is an assistant editor at The Richmond Times-Dispatch. I doubt this person would be “me” as I am in this universe, but they would probably have my name and a little of my personality and general drive.

I would have a half-finished novel in a desk drawer at home. I would daydream a lot. I would semi-loveless marriage and three kids. But I would, if nothing else, be a “success” relative to the traditional metrics that we all have to abide by.

But, here I am, in Earth Prime, just a drunk crank working on the third draft of my novel.

Given everything that has happened since I tried — to no success whatsoever, to work at The Richmond Times-Dispatch many moons ago, I have to say it all does give me something of a chuckle. Reading this book about The New York Times, I am again reminded about how naïve I was all those years ago when I wanted to work at the TD.

Jesus Christ. I was a ding-dong.

I just had no frame of reference for what I was getting myself into. I worked at the Virginia Press Association at the time at the TD was the center of our universe, so of course I wanted to work there. But, it just didn’t work out and it’s for the best.

But I did learn a lot about the newspaper business working at the VPA. And, if nothing else, my time trying to work at the TD did provide me with something of an…Easter egg…for the novel I’m working on. I’ve thought really hard about the nature of that Easter egg and I just don’t see why anyone would object. It’s just a silly wink and a nod to someone who was really important in my life a long, long, long time ago.

Yet I do think about that particular issue a lot.

Only time will tell.

Brooding

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

As a compromise to myself, I’m going to continue to mull a total restructuring of the rest of the third draft of the novel and, yet, at the same time start to game out other stories.

And read. And watch.

What I can’t do is just stare out in the space and pretend that I’m not going older every day. I have GOT to treasure this moment in time. I have go to accept that this moment in my life isn’t going to last for ever. It’s going to end eventually and then Something New will replace it.

What that Something New is, I dunno. But it will happen. All good things must come to an end and I have to throw myself into being as creative as possible. I keep saying that then, lulz, what do I do — nothing of note. Or, whatever I do, I continue to do it by drifting towards my goal, rather than buckling down and getting something done as soon as possible.

But I feel pretty confident that I could still meet my deadline for this novel. I just have to be a lot more self-conscious of my deadline. I can’t just keep doing what I’ve been doing and expect to wrap this novel up ASAP, especially since I keep throwing everything up in the air on a structural basis.

Vibe Shift: Culture, Like Nature, Abhors A Vacuum

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Something very curious is going on with Western culture at the moment. And that curious thing is…nothing. There’s just nothing much going on at the moment. There are lot of macro trends that are heading towards something, but there’s just not a lot going on right now.

There are a lot of ways to look at situation.

One is, this is just the usual winter lull in the year. Another is, culture is kind of in a holding pattern until the election. Or, you could say, once the AI generated Toy Story pops out in a few months, and it will be away we go!

But think about it.

For the last 20-odd years, people have dressed pretty much the same. We’ve listened to music that is pretty much the same — with a few notable exceptions. Everything has just been a number of apps maturing in popularity until some — like Facebook — seem like virtual malls. (Not a lot going on and those people who do use them are old people getting their steps in.)

I do think that AI and the Fourth Turning might be two things that upend the rather sedate cultural world we live in at the moment. And it might be that Apple’s Vision Pro is the first thing that REALLY throws everything for a loop. But even that, I think, has a few more years before people will actually want to wear them.

Not until XR glasses are indistinguishable from those wrap around sunglasses that all those angry MAGA chodes wear will they become popular.

What The Fuck Is Wrong With The New York Times?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The New York Times is a great newspaper — maybe even the best newspaper in the world. But as is shown by the existence of the NYTimes Pitchbot parody Twitter account — something, on a structural basis, is wrong with the place. It’s so bad that I fear that the failure of The New York Times to properly address the threat that is Trump will be written about a great deal once we sort all these issues out one way or another.

It seems as though The Times is — on an institutional basis — is really nervous about being seen as a bastion of liberal thought. It is, of course, but it’s doing its readers a disservice by not being more adamant in its defending of freedom in the face of the rise of MAGA fascism.

It’s all very curious.

I mean, if a doofus like me can notice something so obvious, you’d think the popinjays at The Old Gray Lady might do something about it. But, no, here we are. The Republic is on the cusp of either collapsing into civil war / revolution or turning into an autocracy.

Shrug emoji.

Being A Good Journalist Is Not Hard

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The central mistake of my life is probably that someone did not sit me down, at about 15, and tell me I would never be a journalist. Had someone — preferably a male figure in my life — done that, then, maybe, I wouldn’t have wasted my 20s thinking I could be a daily newspaper reporter.

Me (background) during my crazier days in Seoul.

It has taken me decades to realize that being a good journalist isn’t really that hard, it’s just difficult for me. I am thinking about this because of the review of the Jayson Blair imbroglio I’m reading in the book “The Times” about the modern history of The New York Times.

The way Blair is described at times hits a little bit too close to home, but for the fact that I’ve never done cocaine and I’m honest to a fault — I would never just make shit up in a newspaper article, especially one I knew would be in The New York Times.

Other than that, yikes. I feel seen.

Anyway, there has to be a statute of limitations on alternative universes. I’ve had the life that I’ve had and hopefully — hopefully — I will somehow manage to write a breakout hit novel.

Now, To Take A Deep Breath

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now that I may, in fact, finally, finally, FINALLY be in the second act of the third draft of my first novel, I have to take a very deep breath. I’ve decided that I’m going to game out the character arc of the secondary characters in the novel.

That seems to be the only way I’m going get anything done. I also have to be prepared to throw a lot of the existing specifics of the story up in the air and just see what happens.

But, as I keep saying, I have something of a time limit. I still am shooting for some time in April for the Third Draft of this novel to be finished and ready to go. I fear if I don’t give myself a really tight deadline, that things will slip another year and, what do I know, we could have a civil war/ revolution by that point.

(Not that I really think that is going to happen.)

Old Gray Lady WAP: Of Judith Miller, The New York Times & WMD

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Editor’s Note: Please note, the “Old Gray Lady” in the title is a nickname for The New York Times.

I could care less that Judith Miller of the New York Times would “whip it around” as is said in the song “I Got A Man” with various people, including sources, but I do have beef with her for her Iraq WMD coverage.

Judith Miller

I only even mention her self-avowed bed hopping because she is rather matter of fact about it in the book “The Times” that I’m reading at the moment. I’m sex positive, I don’t care what she did with her body, even if it a bit cringe worthy that she was working at The Times and boning sources with great abandoned.

But like I said, that’s not my beef with her — my beef with her comes from her WMD reporting that was the basis for the US’ invasion of Iraq. I have conservative relatives — whom I love dearly — who took 20 YEARS to admit that that there were no WMD in Iraq.

Twenty fucking years!

And they admitted it in such a casual way because by that point Trump was on the scene so, lulz, all the blood and treasure spend on a lie was no big deal.

Anyway, you go girl, is all I gotta say. But it is amusing that editors of The Old Gray Lady were played so well by Miller at such a crucial juncture in our history.

The Right’s White Hot Need To ‘Own The Libs’ & The ‘Media Narrative’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the ways the browning of America and the increased economic and political agency of women have warped our politics is white Christian (men) get really worked out up about “owning the libs.”

Bari Weiss is among the conservatives who were “canceled” for not following the evil liberal “media narrative.”

This need to “own the libs” pops out in a variety of ways, but one of them is the idea that the evil liberal cabal is out to get people who don’t follow the liberal, mainstream “media narrative.” As part of this, many conservatives are bad faith free speech absolutist, when they are in fact, just annoyed that they can’t be racist and sexist.

They are also crybaby snowflakes who mistake their lack of engagement for being “shadow banned” when, in fact, their views just aren’t popular.

In my personal life, my conservative relatives — whom I love dearly — are quite haughty about how they’re free speech absolutist and if only the evil liberals would get out of the way, then EVERYONE would see how great and wonderful conservative ideals are.

UGH.

The whole thing is a symptom of how fucked up the political world is these days. Everything. Is. So. Fucked. Up.

Why Tay-Tay Will Never Be ‘Great’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about Taylor Swift is she’s good, but she will never be great. And there is one specific reason — she never takes any risks. One of my favorite genre of song is when the moody, melancholy ballad singer freaks the fuck out for one song.

Tay-Tay

A prime example of this is the Tori Amos song “Raspberry Swirl.”

I just can’t imagine Tay-Tay doing such a thing. She will occasionally pop out a pop-rock song, but the long-rumored rock album “Karma” is just that — a rumor. If she were to freak the fuck out for one album in a way that scared the ever living shit out of her liberal white women fanbase, then she takes things to the next level.

I mean, think of The Beatles. They started off as One Direction…and ended up as Radiohead. If it makes Tay-Tay feel any better, if she DID freak out in her music, it would be a great way to steal a creative march on a young upstart like Olivia Rodrigo.