"The Brutalist (the only recent film that managed to shock New Yorkers—when the intermission slide came up after two hours the whole theater gasped)" really made me laugh!!
Unlike you, I'm not convinced there is a whole lot we can do about our positivity/negativity level. I definitely don't think trying harder and trying to find the bright side does anything. I think what I would tell someone poisoned by negativity is to try to get into more positive surroundings, to maybe find some new friends from whom they draw more inspiration and have more respect for.
Now, how one acts does say a lot about one and one's insecurity. That is often why someone takes a negative posture. In the mind of this angry person, acknowledging other good people means that they aren't so good.
Being positive is more or less possible, and maybe more or less worthwhile in different mediums. When I was in psychology graduate school, some professors would tell us to strive to be positive when we critiqued articles. That felt forced and artificial to me. In science, you do tear something down. I'm not sure that formally acknowledging the good, almost as a disclaimer, accomplishes much. But just because we were constantly criticizing doesn't mean we had gone sour and weren't having a good time.
Books to me are much more of a joy ride. They are much more open-ended. With them, I don't find the danger is so much in being overly critical, but just in playing the game of criticism in the first place. I don't think the critic's language works so well with art, which is kind of ironic, because critics are generally magnificent writers. But criticism can feel hollow. It's so hard to get on a true level with a book, for instance, and to address it on its terms. We come at it as an object, without getting inside of it, because that is almost inevitable. And this leads to this incredibly superficial reduction of liking something or not, and to a very rushed effort to somehow sum it up with the equivalent of an elevator conversation right after a play, or what have you. Sometimes it is better to say nothing at all. Criticism of art for me is often down under false premises.
I also have another observation/question. At your book party, it stuck with me when you said that you tend to submit before you are really ready to. In recent updates here, you seem to congratulate yourself for submitting, as if you are overcoming irrational reluctance Has there been a change in how you approach reward and rejection? Or do you congratulate yourself when you submit, because even if your work still isn't quite ready these days, the fact is that it still takes a lot of work to even have something 90%?
ah that's a longer conversation - in short, submitting means that I'm writing something I think is good enough to share. In the past two years, I have had a hard time writing anything that doesn't feel bitter and therefore boring. Some might argue that bitterness is truth and can be shared. It's true... that said, I don't want to remain in bitterness so I don't want to get known for it. On the topic of optimism, I hope I didn't sound like I was saying forced optimism. I meant only that if you actively turn your mind to seeking something you are likely to find it. If you actively seek negative things, you will find them, same for positive. Both are equally "fake" I guess - though one will seem more innate because it is what one is used to doing. Most of our actions are probably learned, and that includes brain actions. Or does it? Are brain actions different from muscle actions?
"The Brutalist (the only recent film that managed to shock New Yorkers—when the intermission slide came up after two hours the whole theater gasped)" really made me laugh!!
I love how you approached cooking with your children!
Keep warm as you go to all these fantastic shows!
Unlike you, I'm not convinced there is a whole lot we can do about our positivity/negativity level. I definitely don't think trying harder and trying to find the bright side does anything. I think what I would tell someone poisoned by negativity is to try to get into more positive surroundings, to maybe find some new friends from whom they draw more inspiration and have more respect for.
Now, how one acts does say a lot about one and one's insecurity. That is often why someone takes a negative posture. In the mind of this angry person, acknowledging other good people means that they aren't so good.
Being positive is more or less possible, and maybe more or less worthwhile in different mediums. When I was in psychology graduate school, some professors would tell us to strive to be positive when we critiqued articles. That felt forced and artificial to me. In science, you do tear something down. I'm not sure that formally acknowledging the good, almost as a disclaimer, accomplishes much. But just because we were constantly criticizing doesn't mean we had gone sour and weren't having a good time.
Books to me are much more of a joy ride. They are much more open-ended. With them, I don't find the danger is so much in being overly critical, but just in playing the game of criticism in the first place. I don't think the critic's language works so well with art, which is kind of ironic, because critics are generally magnificent writers. But criticism can feel hollow. It's so hard to get on a true level with a book, for instance, and to address it on its terms. We come at it as an object, without getting inside of it, because that is almost inevitable. And this leads to this incredibly superficial reduction of liking something or not, and to a very rushed effort to somehow sum it up with the equivalent of an elevator conversation right after a play, or what have you. Sometimes it is better to say nothing at all. Criticism of art for me is often down under false premises.
I also have another observation/question. At your book party, it stuck with me when you said that you tend to submit before you are really ready to. In recent updates here, you seem to congratulate yourself for submitting, as if you are overcoming irrational reluctance Has there been a change in how you approach reward and rejection? Or do you congratulate yourself when you submit, because even if your work still isn't quite ready these days, the fact is that it still takes a lot of work to even have something 90%?
ah that's a longer conversation - in short, submitting means that I'm writing something I think is good enough to share. In the past two years, I have had a hard time writing anything that doesn't feel bitter and therefore boring. Some might argue that bitterness is truth and can be shared. It's true... that said, I don't want to remain in bitterness so I don't want to get known for it. On the topic of optimism, I hope I didn't sound like I was saying forced optimism. I meant only that if you actively turn your mind to seeking something you are likely to find it. If you actively seek negative things, you will find them, same for positive. Both are equally "fake" I guess - though one will seem more innate because it is what one is used to doing. Most of our actions are probably learned, and that includes brain actions. Or does it? Are brain actions different from muscle actions?