Well I am glad to hear this (of course). Sometimes we find just the right thing. And sometimes even our favourite things don't work as we had hoped. It doesn't matter. As long as we stay curious, keep looking, and don't 'cancel' a writer or their work because whatever it was didn't do the job at the time. I loved writing the ghosts, and it started as a Substack project, and that was unexpected too!
Thank you, Jeanette Winterson! In my experience, your writing, again and again, is this hard to find nourishment for the heart, the spirit and the mind. In two words: truly precious...and received with gratefulness. 💚
100% on following and reading Paul Krugman— one of the no BS voices covering the chaos. While it is through the lens of economics, he covers the bigger picture.
Thanks for this post— a good reminder to find the best of us.
I believe art can and does come from joy, not only suffering; perhaps it’s moments of challenge / growth that are often the catalyst, though. The resulting art spins the straw into something to be joyous about, regardless.
I'm neither wowed nor frightened by IT, though sometimes frustrated by it. But I can find little positive in AI, certainly insufficient to balance out its huge environmental impact because of the level of energy it uses.
Creativity requires a human to experience the rich variety of living. It may involve pain and suffering, most lives do, but it isn't an essential ingredient to creating art. AI can take all the art ever created and create infinite variations of it but that isn't art. The endeavour, the nuance achieved from personal interpretation which is related to everything that artist has ever heard, seen, smelled or heard spoken cannot be created by a machine. Emotion and experience are not mathematical equations. They need soul.
"I am all for people disagreeing with one another, that’s life, that’s fine, but we can’t disagree if we don’t have the facts to disagree over." Just perfect!
I was in the crowd at your Melbourne Wheeler Centre event with 4 of my best friends of over 30 years, the finest women with whom I have shared your books with since the early 90’s.
When finished we turned to each other with warm smiles and all agreed how nourished we felt by your yarns.
I do believe that we are the only species whose absence would be a great relief to the rest of our planet.
AI - is a tool not an alternative - it is up to us to try and be wise and we all have a choice to use it or not. Fire Alexa - get up and turn on whatever gadget yourself. No one needs a slave -
Interesting about suffering .i often find when I feel I’m ‘suffering ‘ that it can feel like an opportunity or a need to change in some way rather than something I just have to bear . - difficult with illness etc of course . I think one meaning of suffering has an element of Patience in it . So living with it and expecting something better to emerge from it and being open to what that might be.Rather than defining it as something all bad .
oh, and today this quote from a fellow Montréalais: “If we build AIs that are smarter than us and are not aligned with us and compete with us, then we’re basically cooked.”
—Yoshua Bengio, an academic regarded as one of the godfathers of AI, warns about the dangers of putting AI progress before safety, the Financial Times
“Arts festivals lay claim to the human” - very well said Jeanette, and although I’m housebound and can no longer go to festivals I love to remember those I’ve been to in the past and how enlivening and enriching they were. In a world teetering on the edge, they matter.
I've just finished reading 'Night Side of the River' after a long term hiatus from reading. It wasn't at all what I expected, and I LOVED that it wasn't what I expected! First time in a long LONG time that I have started and completed a book in two days. No other writer can make me laugh out loud and ache with empathy in equal measure. Delighted to see that you have a Substack blog where I can (and will) now greedily gorge on more of your writing. What a joy to be reunited with your work. Thank you, JW x
Agree that life and all kinds of stuff is difficult, but keeping one's heart alive to truth and beauty is definitely a must. I recently attended the How The Light Gets In festival (Hay-on-Wye) and that certainly helped.
As for Krugman, I recall he said (back in 2017) that UK had zero chance of being better off after Brexit. And, as Loudon Wainwright sung, "Krugman ought to know"! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZSor-w3yJk
Thank you -especially for this passage-It’s difficult to live just now, even for those of us who are safe at home. The world is making me seasick. Nothing feels solid. A new and darker future threatens. And that’s why, when I go to festivals where people are happy to talk to strangers and make new friends, where women feel safe to go on their own, where everyone is welcoming and open, I remember what is the best of us.
Well I am glad to hear this (of course). Sometimes we find just the right thing. And sometimes even our favourite things don't work as we had hoped. It doesn't matter. As long as we stay curious, keep looking, and don't 'cancel' a writer or their work because whatever it was didn't do the job at the time. I loved writing the ghosts, and it started as a Substack project, and that was unexpected too!
Thank you, Jeanette Winterson! In my experience, your writing, again and again, is this hard to find nourishment for the heart, the spirit and the mind. In two words: truly precious...and received with gratefulness. 💚
100% on following and reading Paul Krugman— one of the no BS voices covering the chaos. While it is through the lens of economics, he covers the bigger picture.
Thanks for this post— a good reminder to find the best of us.
I believe art can and does come from joy, not only suffering; perhaps it’s moments of challenge / growth that are often the catalyst, though. The resulting art spins the straw into something to be joyous about, regardless.
I'm neither wowed nor frightened by IT, though sometimes frustrated by it. But I can find little positive in AI, certainly insufficient to balance out its huge environmental impact because of the level of energy it uses.
Creativity requires a human to experience the rich variety of living. It may involve pain and suffering, most lives do, but it isn't an essential ingredient to creating art. AI can take all the art ever created and create infinite variations of it but that isn't art. The endeavour, the nuance achieved from personal interpretation which is related to everything that artist has ever heard, seen, smelled or heard spoken cannot be created by a machine. Emotion and experience are not mathematical equations. They need soul.
"I am all for people disagreeing with one another, that’s life, that’s fine, but we can’t disagree if we don’t have the facts to disagree over." Just perfect!
I was in the crowd at your Melbourne Wheeler Centre event with 4 of my best friends of over 30 years, the finest women with whom I have shared your books with since the early 90’s.
When finished we turned to each other with warm smiles and all agreed how nourished we felt by your yarns.
A great afternoon!
one more thing ---- AI
I do believe that we are the only species whose absence would be a great relief to the rest of our planet.
AI - is a tool not an alternative - it is up to us to try and be wise and we all have a choice to use it or not. Fire Alexa - get up and turn on whatever gadget yourself. No one needs a slave -
Brava🥂
Well-said. I add Timothy Snyder as one so worth reading. All posts are free.
Ditto on Tim Snyder! To Klugman and Snyder I would add Heather Cox Richardson and Kristin Kobes Du Mez. Need such voices to keep me sane.
Don’t we. Especially after today’s news.
Watching birds from a rooftop or in a garden restores my hope nearly each day.
Interesting about suffering .i often find when I feel I’m ‘suffering ‘ that it can feel like an opportunity or a need to change in some way rather than something I just have to bear . - difficult with illness etc of course . I think one meaning of suffering has an element of Patience in it . So living with it and expecting something better to emerge from it and being open to what that might be.Rather than defining it as something all bad .
agree - it is an experience - for which we can choose how to respond - I know I refuse to be defined by illness or trauma
Thanks for your reply !
So many people do escape from conditions or situations for which the general opinion is that they ‘should’ suffer for life from
Sometimes it is difficult to let go rather than acceptace and reintegrate as a new person
oh, and today this quote from a fellow Montréalais: “If we build AIs that are smarter than us and are not aligned with us and compete with us, then we’re basically cooked.”
—Yoshua Bengio, an academic regarded as one of the godfathers of AI, warns about the dangers of putting AI progress before safety, the Financial Times
“Arts festivals lay claim to the human” - very well said Jeanette, and although I’m housebound and can no longer go to festivals I love to remember those I’ve been to in the past and how enlivening and enriching they were. In a world teetering on the edge, they matter.
Enjoy the summer festivals everyone!
I've just finished reading 'Night Side of the River' after a long term hiatus from reading. It wasn't at all what I expected, and I LOVED that it wasn't what I expected! First time in a long LONG time that I have started and completed a book in two days. No other writer can make me laugh out loud and ache with empathy in equal measure. Delighted to see that you have a Substack blog where I can (and will) now greedily gorge on more of your writing. What a joy to be reunited with your work. Thank you, JW x
Agree that life and all kinds of stuff is difficult, but keeping one's heart alive to truth and beauty is definitely a must. I recently attended the How The Light Gets In festival (Hay-on-Wye) and that certainly helped.
As for Krugman, I recall he said (back in 2017) that UK had zero chance of being better off after Brexit. And, as Loudon Wainwright sung, "Krugman ought to know"! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZSor-w3yJk
Thank you -especially for this passage-It’s difficult to live just now, even for those of us who are safe at home. The world is making me seasick. Nothing feels solid. A new and darker future threatens. And that’s why, when I go to festivals where people are happy to talk to strangers and make new friends, where women feel safe to go on their own, where everyone is welcoming and open, I remember what is the best of us.
This-
-What we have been given, as humans, on this wonderful planet, and what we have made, as humans. The best of us-
And that astonishing picture will carry me through the day.
Thank you so much.
Exactly!