Sunday, April 22, 2012

A Conversation with My Muse

Oh, sorry. It's Damon. Or Genius. My history fails me. I must have watched this TED talk a few too many times, because I just decided if all creative folk are like me, they must either be schizophrenic or Muses/Damons/Geniuses totally exist, cuz this just happened:

Muse?
Yes?
What’s your name?
Frigg.
Frigg? Really? Like the Scandinvinian goddess?
Yes. What do you expect? Ares the God of war?
No. I don’t really know what I expected.
Well, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is this…why have you been ignoring me?
Um…
Yeah, that’s what I thought. You’ve been putzing away our precious time with already made up stories that frankly aren’t even that well written. Po and Mitzy have clearly been slacking off. They have it easy, with those Hollywood writers. The less to think about, the more the public eats it up. They’re sitting there fat and lazy, throwing out whatever trash comes out of whatever end of them, raking in the credidations, while I sit here full of brilliance and you do nothing but occasionally take note.
Sorry.
Yeah, well, you should be. You just did it again!
What?
Ignored me! Here I am, gushing out brilliance and you go off and check facebook! Really, do you think people have something that terribly important to say to you that you have to tune me out?
You sure think you’re brilliant.
Yeah, well, that’s what makes me exist. Creative brilliance. It would give you a bit more existence too, if only you’d stop being obsessed with internet reality.
Sometimes internet reality is all I’ve got.
Well, maybe that’s because that’s where the bulk of your attention lies.
Um….maybe you’re right.
Of course I’m right. I’m your muse. Your damon. Your inner genius who gets slapped away in favor of little red boxes.
You’ve used those last two lines before. “Little red boxes.”
Yeah, we’ll I’m a little rusty. I haven’t had this much attention paid to me since, well, possibly never. You usually give a general nod in my direction when I send you something great by making a little note to yourself which naturally gets lost in the shuffle of the chaos of your life. Then you go off and try to shuffle little lettered tiles or watch some of Po’s crappy work garnishing millions of dollars on Netflix.
What about Rowling?
What about her?
Um, she’s good.
Yeah, she paid attention when Pollux, her damon spoke to her. She sat her ass down day after day and listened to what he had to say. Then she listened to him when he reworked it again and again. She didn’t write off that re-working bit. She knew that’s where the true value of the work came out.  She knew her part. She didn’t ignore Pollux, she didn’t rely soley on him. She found a balance, unlike you.
Oh.
Yeah. Oh. Might be something to be learned there.
Yeah.
Yeah. So what are you gonna do about it?
Drink more wine?
Ha! Sure, that might help for a minute. Helped Van Gogh right until he hacked off his ear.
I won’t hack off my ear.
You think.
I think.
It’s a big world out there, the world of creativity. Lots of folks lose their way. Chop off their ears. Sew rocks into the skirts and go swimming. Make friends with the barrel of a shot gun. Or piss it away because they don’t know how to deal with it. Ignore it. Hope it will come back later so they can check that BigBrotherBook one more time.
You’re very forward, aren’t you?
Are you?
Yeah.
Then, yeah, naturally I am. I am what you are. You are what I am. We’re a team so start working with me here.
Okay, but can you be a little louder from time to time . It’s hard to hear you sometimes.
Alright. That’s’ fair. I’ll knock louder. You answer. And give me your full attention, the first time around as well as editing time, got it?
Got it. So, we’re friends now?
Let’s start with colleagues and go from there.
Okay.
Also, pay attention to my co-workers! You’re always paying attention to their work. I can work through that. Let their work become our work!
Great. Can you call Jonsi and tell him I want a word?
No. But I can call his muse. I’ll need a translator but it’ll work.
Thanks. Hey…What happens when I can’t hear you?
Listen harder. I’m around. We’re always around. You humans are just too distracted to notice. You know where to find me. Start deciding to do so.


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