Writer’s Block

Hello,

People may be wondering why there has been a distinct lack of depressing, self indulgent nonsense on the BHASVIC floating around lately, which is mainly due to me becoming stricken with unshakable writer’s block. At present, my biggest problem isn’t not wanting to write, it’s not knowing *what* to write, or how to express it. I’ve spent the last 45 minutes staring into a blank word document, hoping that just one mediocre sentence would form itself from the caverns of my thought. In typical procrastinotic (is that a word?) fashion, this has led me to start thinking about the nature of writer’s block. Obviously it could most simply and literally be summed up as a lack of creative energy in the mind of a writer, but being stuck up and quasi intellectual, I like to see it as something more.

If you will humour me, consider creative energy as a village water pump in a desolate village. As long as the water is flowing, the writer can be nourished, and can enjoy the wealth of abundance, but as soon as something prevents the flow, everything in the writer’s life can grind to a holt. Perhaps the image of the average casual poet sinking into a downward spiral due to a lack of Myspace blog material is somewhat overdramatic, but I know that many times a lack of inspiration has served as a catalyst to a general bad mood. Now, when the writer searches for their ration of inspiration, they find nothing, not even a single drop of ability. Quickly, confusion turns to full blown bewilderment to complete and utter despair. The problem is, however much you force the pump, you still get nothing. You can punch, kick, prey or scream at the thing for as long as you want, it’ll all become counter productive, the only thing that will get the waters of ability flowing again is chance.

The moment you are able to write again seems like a feeling of rebirth, you can lie awake at night dreaming of the opportunities for expression. You sit and write for hours and hours, sometimes shutting out the typical facets of existance completely and only after you’ve finished creating fountains of thought do you sit back and realise that what you have written is meaningless. The waters you have been given have just drained away into nonsense. You were just so absorbed in being able to bring pen to paper (or fingers to keys, as the case may be) you didn’t realise that what you were putting was, for want of a more subtle term, complete bollocks… Then, where do you stand? You’re stuck right back where you were when you were to begin with, with a lingering thirst for creative contentment that cannot be quenched.

Perhaps it’s only me that works this way, but I think the horrors of writer’s block are something that we all deal with at some stage. I apologize if everything above here made no sense, I guess it could be considered a spewing that I hoped would cure me of my impediment.

A genuinely fluffy person really,

- Tom

… and the Rocket’s red glare part II

So, seemingly the good man won (from my perspective, anyway). For the time being, this is good news indeed. Although I feel compelled to be a party pooper and point out some negatives. The first, and this is a point that has been raised by many of my friends, is that Obama may be assassinated during his spell in the White House. Certainly, two or more attempts on his life have been unearthed, with countless others inevitably in the pipeline. This is indeed worrying news, but we can all be rest assured that the moronic, inbred hicks willing to make an attempt on the life of the soon-to-be most powerful man on the planet are usually too stupid to get anywhere in their plans, and get caught after posting the exact details of their “operations” on Stormfront. The biggest danger would be if a racist organisation hired someone with half a brain cell to do the job, in which case we may have something to worry about. But enough future Tom Clancy plotlines.

The other, less dramatic problem could be that Obama turns into the American Blair, in that he is all talk and no action, and will lead the country further down the road that Bush sent it marching towards. This is possible, but at this stage it is impossible to draw any conclusions, one way or the other. I’m trying to remain optimistic though, at least the world’s most influential superpower isn’t being co-led by a woman who believes in witches…

What do you all think of the situation?

- Tom

… and the Rocket’s red glare, part I.

So, here we are, teetering nervously on the brink of another result day. The biggest difference is this time the Republican candidate is a fossil, not a chimp. There’s definately a buzz in the air, although it could just be the caffiene I’ve saved up for this very occasion. The Internet is aflame with opinions and values… and people calling the opposing candidate a fruity variety of ethnic and homophobic slurs, but Youtube will be youtube. I prefer to take a less hostile stance in these final moments of indecision, the time for rallying cries and stirring speeches is over. The only thing that will influence the outcome of the election now is the hearts and minds of the American people. I am perhaps speaking slightly out of character as a cynical, bitter Brit who spends his days rubbing his cultural identity into the brick wall of a crumbling coal mine when I say that I do have some faith in the average American citizen. After all, no reasonable human being could be seduced again by the poorly thought out economic policies and war mongering propoganda of the American right, could they?

One of the things that irritates me is just how much the coverage mentions the colour of Obama’s skin. In about 30 minutes I heard an uncountable number of references to his race. I mean, I understand that the fact that he is the first African American (well, half African American) candidate to run for the presidency and succeed in getting this far will be on the minds of many voters (influencing them either positively, negatively, or not at all) but does the media really need to mention it every time some overweight, nylon suit clad, just-left-of-Mosley political “commentator” (or shit stirrer, depending on how sugar coated you want the title to be) opens his mouth in order to disecrate the opposition’s wealth as a human being?

One of the reasons this election is so vital is that if the vote goes to the Republicans and McCain dies in office (choking on a Murray Mint or something), we’ll have potty Palin running the most militaristically powerful country on Earth. We can expect wars with anyone remotely left of field, or right of field in a way the CIA disapprove of, or anyone that Palin feels is sheltering that baby deer she failed to execute last year. If this is the case, and the presidency falls to her in this manner… Well, may China have mercy on us all…

I will cut this non sensical rant short (at the same time ignoring the fact that in the above paragraph I was being just as slimy and underhanded in my criticism as the Bill O’Reiley clones I mentioned earlier), but I will say this. We are on the doorstep to what may go down in history as one of the most socially and historically important US elections of all time, a time that could shape the nature of the next decades. Let us just hope that the rightful candidate wins (in case the BBC needs any clarity, that’s the black one… *sigh*)

Oh, and just in case things do go to hell and we do end up locked in a second cold war, I wish to point out my usefulness to our new Chinese masters as a fresh member of the widespread blogging community, which will make an excellent propoganda tool… P-Please don’t kill me…

Tom “ask not what your comments can do for you” Harrison,

- Tom.

EDIT: Sorry to keep blabbering, but this is just too hilarious for you all to miss. Some flag waving, blindly patriotic American has decided to make a montage of pictures that show how much America “rox”, and then put it to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”. He even goes so far as to acknowledge just how bizarre this is. Oh, don’t read the comments if you want your faith in humanity to remain intact.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7oVzHm_S0-A