productivity as part of creativity, beautiful image fatigue, Gen-Z beowulf

8 things worth sharing. and happy easter.

Here are some things worth sharing this week, as I’m headed to a beach in South Carolina for a mental break…

1. On Productivity by

   Lincoln Michel

   For this type of artist, working too long on something can even kill whatever spark it had. Polishing diamonds into dull stones, as it were. I don’t think that Charles Dickens or Prince or [insert your favorite productive artist] would have been better if they produced less. The producing was central to the process.

2. Desktop Diary #5 by

   Molly Soda

   I always love to see what Molly is thinking about. She’s a digital-first artist, always on the edge of what’s happening and where the trends are going. The link above are photos from her desktop that she’s pulled from various places on the Internet…here’s something she’s thinking about:

   I’m suffering from beautiful image fatigue. Everything has been done. Every concept has been photographed. Go to Pinterest and look for a picture of a sunset or a hot girl holding a smoothie or a fashion shoot involving CRT TV and a model holding a camcorder. There’s plenty! Currently, I crave compressed pictures and Photobucket watermarks. I’m not the only one exhausted by pretty pictures. I’ve noticed an uptick in purposely “poor” images on Tumblr in particular…

3. Tools for thinking about censorship at Reactor.

   The majority of censorship is self-censorship, but the majority of self-censorship is intentionally cultivated by an outside power.

4. Apparently, SPD, a distributor for small presses is shutting down. They do a lot of the independent book publishers and academic presses. Here’s a tweet from Matt Bell that captures the news & sentiment the best.

5. Case study of going viral on Substack by

   Dan Blank

   I’ve often said that while it there is tremendous value in the creative process itself, I find that magic happens when something you write mixes with the mindset and life experience of a reader. Something new is created, a combination of the intention in your writing, and the way a reader receives it. In this moment, writing changes our lives for the better. That is the power your writing has.

6. Gen-Z Beowulf at McSweeney’s

7. Why mediocrity may be your gateway to greatness

   • From earlier this week!

8. How to keep fresh eyes

   • From the archive!

---

Book & TV Notes

• Finished The Talented Mr. Ripley right before the Netflix series starts

  • The writing felt like a TV show, with some sections go really deep into detail, and other parts slightly skimming over things

  • It seems that his deception would be hard to pull off with modern technology, which honestly is part of the fun of reading it

  • There are other books? It’s a series? But I don’t think I’ll keep going.

• Picked up Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff when I was at Strand Bookstore the other day, based off of that Atlantic list of Great American Novels. This is what I’ll be taking while I travel and am at the beach. I haven’t read any books of hers before though I’ve heard of her.

• Started 3 Body Problem on Netflix which is better than I thought. I don’t feel compelled to read the books though. The writing in sci-fi novels is usually hard for me to get into

---

Last Thing

“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,  so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” — Hebrews 9:27-28

Happy Easter.

Keep going-

Josh Spilker