Choosing to walk

This is a great question, not a stupid one; she has arrived at a conclusion that makes perfect sense within the logics of modern labour and production. This author views her writing as a product, and her audience views her writing as a product, and most products are manufactured in line with this logic: someone comes up with an idea, does a bit of ... See more

I just think the job of the artist is in part to resist the demands of the product-side (optimizing their work for the market, maximizing profit, constantly increasing production, prioritizing efficiency at the expense of creativity) as often as they can, for the sake of their own artistic, intellectual, and spiritual health.

I think of writing a lot like walking. It’s rarely the most popular, the most effective, or the most efficient way of getting to your destination. I don’t always want to do it, and it’s not always technically enjoyable; sometimes it’s boring or slow, sometimes it’s tiring and pointless, sometimes it’s cold or wet or windy and I’m retracing the same... See more

This phenomenal article in The Verge follows the inner conflict of a writer who started using Sudowrite to help pump out several of her self-published fantasy novels per year: “ It’s just words , she thought. It’s my story, my characters, my world. I came up with it. So what if a computer wrote them?”

The friction between idea and ability that AI evangelists promise to eradicate is not a problem suffered by a disadvantaged few. It’s the fundamental condition of the writer, and it is precisely through that friction that we discover what it is we actually have to say.