Respect for Dear Reader is one of the tenets of the Stephen King school of writing. King’s book and autobiography On Writing: Memoirs of the Craft advocates for a building of your “writing toolbox” and utilizing that to lure your reader into intimate, in-brain conversation. Although, I suspect King has come across this theory of direct inter-brain connection/conversation over years of “meditation” on writing – or would he say years of disemboweling himself over hard won pages of blood soaked screed – he did it naturally at first by writing to his wife, his Constant Reader.
No matter how arrogant or opinionated the writer, good writing comes from a humble place. A writer is not owed a reader, the reader is owed good writing. As a reader, I don’t necessarily need to see perfect grammar or spelling, but the polish put into the product makes it more credible. The more effort a writer puts into their writing the more time I can justify spending reading their work.
What writer, that has any respect for himself and readers, uses ChatGPT for writing any kind of copy. For the reader, it is the opposite of an in-brain connection with a fellow human being. It’s like having a one way conversation with smart blender that grinds up literature into a slurry including cheeks, beaks, and assholes. That blender turns into a smart 3d food printer to reassemble the classics and shit slurry into some tasty shit-filled sausages. In the end we are reading/consuming shit filled sausages of no meaning. They look like writing food for the soul, but there is no soul, no mind to mind connection.
I may regret this statement when the computer overlords become more human than human and grow a deeper soul than any meat computer.
I think I am getting bogged down in meat references that don’t connect.
The point being, why fucking write all the shit we write these days? I will argue for human connection and what Stephen King calls psychic transfer of knowledge over time and space (explained in his book). Does all the shit we need ChatGPT for even need to be written in the first place? More ad copy, more blog posts, more filler to consume consume consume.
Quit wasting my fucking time and come talk to me in my brain about ideas that matter.
Be First to Comment