Have you ever thought to yourself “how is sharing my opinion online going to impact the world?” I think about that a lot. It’s why I don’t post on my blog much.
One of the nice things about being an unpublished writer is that you can write whatever you want to write. Maybe you believe in things that are nuts, or reprehensible to most people, but because you don’t intend to publish it, it doesn’t matter. When you publish something, you are now responsible for the things that happen as a result of your work. It doesn’t matter if it was your intended response, you’re still responsible for it. And if you’re like me and know that no matter how hard you try there’s still a very real chance you missed something, that’s scary.
To say nothing of the fact that I believe in a lot of things about the world, regarding all sorts of subjects. The problem is I often can’t remember why I believe in something. I vaguely remember people talking about things and giving various examples, but I couldn’t come up with any if my life depended on it. To say nothing of the fact that my least favorite part of doing any research paper was doing citations. Don’t get me wrong, I know they’re important and I know why, if I saw anyone talking about something without offering citation’s, I’d be skeptical.
It’s entirely possible that whether I voice my opinions or keep them silent doesn’t matter at all. My blog currently has no followers and hardly anybody reads it, and I honestly don’t know if that depresses me or makes me feel grateful. I do worry that I’ll be responsible for some major disaster because I wasn’t thinking, but I do want to believe that my opinions are of value to the world.
My views on artistic media, of any sort, is that when people write, or draw pictures, or compose music, or anything that is any way viewed as artistic, they are expressing their views on things. Art is a way of talking to others that nobody has to listen to, and nobody has to care about. Because of that, it’s the glue that holds society together. What art we consume and talk about is as much a reflection on us as it is a reflection on the artist that made it. It genuinely bothers me that people talk about art as though it’s unimportant. It’s useless, but not unimportant. Even when art does nothing more than entertain people, it’s still important, not just to the people who made it, but to the people in the audience.
Honestly, I think bad art is, in a lot of ways, more valuable to artists than great or good art is. Great art is valuable to the masses because it helps them figure out what’s important to them and what in life matters to them. Bad art is good because it shows artists what does and doesn’t work when trying to convey your ideas to people. If it were up to me, everyone wanting to be an artist would go onto the internet and read short stories by amateur writers. It’ll show you what not to do better than William Shakespeare ever will.
Well, that’s about all I have to say. I will admit, one nice thing about not being a popular blogger is that you can write whatever you want. Nobody’s going to read it anyway, so why worry about whether or not your writing is consistent or has any point at all. I have to admit, one of the good things about the internet is that it’s so informal. I genuinely like a lot of stuff that wouldn’t be an any published setting, not because I think its good, but because it’s fun to read or play or watch. After all, what is the purpose of fiction if not to remind us that, even if we’re bad at things, we still have value.