the purefinder - archives - Wed, 2004-08-11
« punk, the apparatus of the state and dead hedgehogs | Main | putting it on your plate »August 11, 2004
what editors get paid for
I wouldn't try and pretend that there aren't any number of faults with my writing.
I enjoy reading the stuff that I write almost as much as I enjoy writing it; that is the fundamental critical criterion that I apply to the process. Most people who write confess that it it is difficult to be contemporaneously objective about their writing - it's hard enough to even try and spot speling mistakes.
_My_ recurring frustration with my writing arises from my apparent inability to apply any editorial judgement to what I have written - at least within any usefully short time period.
Thus, the last thing I wrote, about me and punk and dead hedgehogs, just fizzled out without me being able to encapsulate my point in a useful and fashionable conclusion.
It was only when I thought about an email I'd got from Nixon, that I managed to remember the point which would/should have served as my conclusion.
The sort of punk I was, was always more about smashing and rebuilding myself than about smashing the system and rebuilding paradise; even if I didn't realise it at the time - that is the bit that has endured and made me. I'm happy that other people sing and shout about smashing the system as it is helpful for us to examine and consider - everything. It's useful to have people who will drag the world incrementally towards Utopia - I couldn't pretend that I'm doing much of that dragging these days.
I'm happy enough engaging with the world on my own terms and knowing that I need to make decisions about me and _my_ life - that's what punk gave me - that's the sort of punk I _am_.
Posted by padraig at August 11, 2004 11:14 AM