Thursday, September 22, 2011

What I’m Working On

I doubt I’ll have anything to post today, but there are two things in particular that I am working on. So this is basically an update/teaser, and in one case, an appeal for some help.

One is an interview with Andrea York, from the blog “Write Down the Revelation.” This is still ongoing, and I currently have 123 pages (though only just over 37,000 words) to look through and edit (mostly to remove the formatting from Facebook chat, which is what we are conversing on, and of course my spelling errors, though not her’s, because she never makes any… and no, I’m not kidding). Andrea is able to talk to God Himself, so you can imagine my delight. I will have to release the interview in stages, perhaps as many as ten, though it’s not over yet, despite having begun over a week ago. I feel like there just hasn’t been a real conclusion in the conversation, and she just keeps responding back, so it continues…

The second thing I am working on is a piece about the difference between liberals and conservatives. It is on this topic that I urge anyone to share what they see as the fundamental differences between the two ideologies. I aim to focus on the ideas, so I am emphasizing that where this article is concerned, “liberal” and “conservative” are adjectives, not nouns. But honestly, don’t let anything restrict what you want to say; I can translate just about any approach into a form I could use, and I would be happy to credit anyone in my post if they provide an idea I borrow (and I promise to return it without too much damage).

I ask for help, because so far I have about 7 pages, single spaced… and that is too much. I will be scrapping what I have and merely using it as a primer for when I rewrite it tonight or tomorrow, and anything that others may add will help keep me on track, because sometimes when you focus on your own ideas too much, you forget there are other views out there. Basically… I need you guys to keep me honest.

That’s about it for now. Hopefully I’ll have a spark of creativity tonight and maybe make a post about something completely unrelated to the above, but I doubt I will have either of these two finished in time for publishing before tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.

9 comments:

  1. Writer's block is a pain in the ass, isn't it?

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  2. Worse than writer's block is intellectual diarrhea. It's spurting every which way and I can't keep it under control.

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  3. Wait, I should have used a less disgusting metaphor... like projectile idea vomiting.

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  4. My advice for both lists: avoid the extreme views. Extreme views are what we typically falsely ascribe to the other fellow. Superlatives and absurdity of belief are mostly fictions inventions created by the opponents of certain ideologies and mostly foreign to the those to whom we assign them.

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  5. With my first go around, I made a list as notes, and I wrote it in paragraph form, without any semblance of a list. Do you think I should have a literal list?

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  6. Oh, I don't know. The problem with this kind of analysis is that you cannot find two liberals who agree on very much, so trying to represent the liberal position is not that simple.

    Until the advent of the Tea Party, the conservative position would have been a little simpler. As soon as we say "the liberal position" followed by specifics, we probably are misrepresenting it. Liberals have broad views Obama is a liberal and so you, but I suspect the two of you think nothing alike.

    Do you intend to represent your views or Obama's?

    When you represent the conservative view, are you going to represent Heathen's views or Rush Limbaugh's?

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  7. I avoid that problem of "no two X's agree" by pointing out that ideas are liberal or conservative, not people. People hold a collection of ideas that are both liberal and conservative, and based on the definition I provide for liberal and conservative, one can categorize ideas as one or the other with ease.

    And trust me, Obama is not a liberal. Some of his ideas are liberal, and even a few of his policies are, but I assure you: Obama is not a liberal. He's certainly more liberal than most Republicans, but that's like saying, "Well, that soup was warmer than absolute zero."

    I won't be basing "liberal" or "conservative" on any one person's views.

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  8. I was wondering how John stumbled to my site; I can't believe that we've accumulated so much text, but then again many of my answers are as long as a typical post.

    I'm glad I don't have to edit it for the blogosphere.

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  9. It's a blast reliving it, and I am taking notes on what I feel like we breezed over.

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