WHY ENCOURAGE CREATIVITY WHEN WHAT WE NEED ARE MINDLESS DRONES?
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Category Archives: To Think About
A big buzz word in education and self-improvement circles is “creativity.” We’re urged to Are We Honest or Overboard About Obscenities?
While watching a 50s Western on television, I chuckled to be reminded of the extremes the media used to reach to avoid censorship or offending their audiences. One character, a rancher, was married to a Native American woman; and two of the townsmen launched a sexist tirade to get his goat, stating, “We’ve heard she’s some pumpkin.” To update the scene, replace “pumpkin” with the profanity of your choice.
At the same time, I was rereading a science fiction classic, The Stars My Destination,” by Alfred Bester. (The teleporting hero seeks revenge for his abandonment on a wrecked space ship and causes havoc all about him.) Published originally in 1956, the version I perused made special note twice of the lack of complete rape and sex scenes, claiming that had the author been writing more recently, he wouldn’t have been stifled and we could have been treated to vivid renderings.
I was thankful I’m not limited in my writing the way people were sixty years ago. I have more freedom, I thought. But then I wondered why that was my reaction. I didn’t miss the violence and sex in the book; the plot certainly raced through compelling scenes and conflicts, sending my fingers fluttering through the pages. I remembered the Western. Did I miss any tension because substitutes had been made for vulgarities? No.
One of my works in progress is a novel with a vivid sex scene. This is not one of my romances. In those, unlike the current trend to include in fiction every bang or whimper or lick, I don’t accompany the characters into beds. To me, that’s comparable to writing at length about someone eating or using the toilet. There’s not much difference among humans, it’s repetitive and boring no matter how a writer tries to dress it up. And yet, yes, I’m including this sex scene because it’s part of the satirical slant.
I have to say I don’t like unending vulgarities in films, books, television or otherwise. While some writers, composers, filmmakers will protest they’re just reflecting society, that’s not true. My friends and family don’t swear with every other word.
Many have noted that bad language is a substitute for thinking, for careful attention to expression. Am I offended when the man next to me on the bus is conducting a conversation loaded with F-bombs? I don’t think so. But my attitude tends toward disgust that he has so little regard for strangers around him, or himself and the image he’s conveying to them, that he uses it.
I’m grateful that society has loosened up so use of an obscenity is not grounds for jail or shunning. In any creative endeavor or situation taut with emotion, swearing is a tool of expression. But have we become too dependent on it in everyday life as well as our entertainment? Maybe before we open our mouths, we should ask ourselves if foul language will add to our expression and understanding.
The Collective Consciousness
Is the collective consciousness disappearing, or simply morphing into a destructive force? I wonder this as I wander through my daily life, receiving small dings of infuriation from the growing discourtesy and poor behavior of the people in my city.
Example after example: In the YMCA I patronize, dirty towels litter the locker room, showers and steam bath, despite signs reminding people to pick up after themselves. . .following blizzards, an increasing percentage of residents fail to shovel their walks, notwithstanding city ordinances that require this as well as the danger and inconvenience to the elderly, handicapped, and parents burdened with babies. . .doggies dump hither and yon (usually on my lawn) although both common courtesy and laws push owner pick-ups.
The collective consciousness is a set of shared beliefs, ideas and moral attitudes between members of a group as large as a nation or as small as a clique in a school. Often unwritten and unspoken, the collective consciousness can convey cultural values, unify people, and focus efforts and activities toward a goal, even if no one can say what that is. While some, especially the touchie-feeling philosophers among us, may think the collective consciousness is on the upswing, what with the internet, instant messaging, smart phones, and all for the good, I beg to differ.
There’s no denying collective consciousness may be destructive or bad. It might consist of a rush to erroneous judgment, crucifying a suspect in murder who turns out to be blameless. Or it may be the opposite, like those who sympathized with Lance Armstrong’s battle to maintain his innocence, only to learn he was guilty all along. It can be as petty and stupid as a mass vote for a reality show competitor (whether that person’s despicable or admirable).
When it comes to practical application of collective consciousness, the simpler the concept, the better. The bigger the group, frequently the lower the common denominator to reach its members. That master of mass movements, Hitler, said, “All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehension of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.” As for propaganda, he felt the larger the group you’re trying to influence, the simpler the messages should be.
The dichotomy of today’s technology is that movements along and within it are massive: millions following a Tweeter, billions signing up to win a sweepstakes, thousands searching for the same job. At the same time, its focus is minute; you can create an in-group of two or three, even fewer if you’re dealing with your own fantasy. So can we achieve individual accountability at the same time we push collective responsibility?
But enough theorizing. What I really want to know is how to get people to pick up their towels, shovel their walks, and collect their doggy droppings. Or does the new collective consciousness, apparently based on “who gives a damn” and “I can’t be bothered” and “I don’t care if other people are inconvenienced” promise to triumph?
G & A FOR 2014
What’s G & A? Not General & Administrative in a budget expense document, nor Grief & Aggravation in slang shorthand. It’s “goals and achievements,” a blog hop for my publisher, Prism Book Group, taking place January 20 and 21, 2014.
A blog hop links together a number of bloggers around one topic, and you, the reader, can hop from site to site to read them easily. This one focuses on me and my fellow writers, what we’ve achieved, what we see coming up in the next year. Click on the Linky link below to travel to other authors.
Serendipity plays a big role in my writing. I’ve learned to see this as an achievement. While ideas for stories and books frequently swim around in my brain for years, the particulars depend heavily on coincidence. Take the manuscript I’m currently working on. Because it’s a romance, a woman and a man meet and fall in love after many problems. But the particulars—their characters, the setting, the dialogue, the supporting cast—frequently develop from happenstance in everyday life.
One theme I think will resonate throughout the story is what value do we place on friendship? This question occurred after I saw The Armstrong Lie, a documentary film about the bicyclist. Some friends turned against him as his deceit was revealed; others struggled against betrayal out of loyalty to him and the team. He, too, talks about the bonds of friendship. This theme could be the strong underpinning for my entire plot.
As I watched the revelations from a once-heroic figure, I realized I could base a character from my NEXT novel on him. A person who would make any sacrifice to win, yet a man who seems to value personal loyalty above almost anything else. A parent who must somehow figure out how to retain the affection of his children in the face of his moral downfall. An individual held captive by our collective guilt in many situations that excuse bad behavior if “everyone is doing it.”
Another coincidence: Colorado’s recent floods. Mother Nature or luck pulls people out of their ordinary rounds, and they’re forced to react unexpectedly. They can respond in admirable or despicable ways. In my upcoming novel (possibly titled Rocky Mountain Rebirth or Rocky Mountain Renewal, slated for publication summer 2014), one of the wild fires that periodically sweep the forests plays a major role. And in the manuscript I’m working on, I’ve decided a flood like the ones the state experienced in 2013 will be a major turning point.
My goal for 2014 has fallen into place on its own—finish a new novel. I hope and trust the cycle will continue indefinitely, goal-achievement-goal-achievement, as long as I can drag myself to the keyboard
Click with your mouse on this Linky Link to get to 21 authors and their thoughts about Gs & As
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Laughing on the Outside
I learn a great deal about human behavior from television news. The actual facts and events are almost irrelevant. Instead I observe the talent. I’ve noticed over the past five years or so that, like the plummeting content of print publications, newscasters convey less and less news. Grins spread over their faces constantly. I recently saw three anchors spend five minutes of prime time on attractive cats and jokes. The weather reporter had local kids doing guest spots, and each of them ended with a variation on “It will be an awesome day.” Even when the broadcast is tragic—a massive fire, a shooting at a school—the cast’s expressions are neutral but still congenial.
Does this mean we have fewer tragedies in the world? That the number of wars, attacks, rapes, murders, falling stock markets, epidemics, droughts have plunged? No, it just means we’re trying our best to ignore them.
One refrain, not limited to TV, is “make a great day.” Commanded at the conclusion of emails, spouted when conversations are drawing to a close, this phrase assumes we have control over the pleasantness, good will, and productivity we’ll experience. As if a day’s atmosphere can be constructed like a brick wall—one brick for feeling healthy, another for a good meal, still another for a pleasantry from a companion. On the inside of that wall are the good, nice, successful, pleasant people like ourselves; on the other the failures, dying, poor, whatever. We can block them out of our consciousness.
Why do we have to be happy all the time? Why, if I’m not animated and grinning, do passersby chastise me, “Smile!”
While this situation feels and is artificial, I’ve read about studies that show people who head for the fantasy side of existence rather than reality actually are happier. Perhaps it’s not important to know which individual hates you or dwell on the work assignment you flubbed. I knew a man who was convinced he was a great public speaker even though others cowered when he approached a microphone. A woman beautiful in her youth and edging toward old age still believing she was a knock-out despite her sags, fat, and wrinkles.
As for expressions on the human face, other studies have shown if we smile, we feel better; and certainly those around us or seeing us do, too.
So if we’re wearing rose-colored glasses, it’s ok. And if television news reporters spend the greater part of the time telling jokes, grinning, laughing and spouting “Make a great day,” perhaps there’s nothing negative (pun intended).
If we’re in the mood for moans and cries, we’ll have to go to reality shows, like the Bachelor. I saw more sadness and tears there than I’ve seen in the news in a year.
Bonnie McCune, author 