Uses of adversity:
That bard has a sympathetic character declare, “Sweet are the uses of adversity.” Things weren’t going so hot for him, but he was taking the bright outlook. From what I can tell the quote is not so popular any longer. Not many people take the bright outlook. I should know. I say we can fix this demographic thing with a rational mating strategy. Few respond.
As a man with a message I try to be clear. Make my point. Throw in a few extraneous things to soften the tedium. I try to be nice to my reader.
Yet as I have pointed out before there is an advantage to being less nice. Print something in a difficult font and it will be better understood, for instance print in italics. Italic print isn’t so difficult as it is unusual. For many years when I found something in italics I would simply skip it. Not much comprehension there I fear. But people have used it for emphasis for many years, so of course it was the important stuff.
Now it is suggested (Ian Leslie The Uses of Difficulty page 2 of a section from INTELLIGENT LIFE printed in ECONOMIST vol. 405 no. 5814 December 8, 2012) that difficulty in making music or any other undertaking has advantages. More of the brain is called into play and the result is more creative and better thought through.
So I suppose I should be working with a quill pen. My favorite things to read and favorite music to listen to were done that way.
On the other hand, I don’t have much urge to be more creative. In fact I don’t want to be creative at all, just to get it right. I suppose I could be more creative in my approach – present my message by skydiving holding colored smoke bombs or something – but given the approach all I really want is to give you the truth. I suppose I could think it all through better, but actually I would like other people to think it through.
So I don’t see changing my style right now. I’ll keep on writing to make things as clear as possible and hope the reader will find the whole concept troubling enough so as to need no further incentive to pull the brain into play.
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