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Thoughts in the dark:
If your soul goes into your work
and your work is always up for sale
what part of yourself can you still call your own?
If your soul goes into your work
and your work is always up for sale
what part of yourself can you still call your own?
Continuous casting in old blast furnace, Clabecq, Belgium: photo by Jean-Pol Grandmont, 2006
Outline of a cloud containing text 'The Cloud': SVG image by Sam Johnston, 2008
9 comments:
Tom,
Back from Denver where there were clouds (too) and the orange circle of sun rose above eastern horizon yesterday (on way to airport for flight back home, where it's still raining!). Anselm said your blog is about all there is to read these days. . . .
4.12
grey light coming into sky above shadowed
ridge, red-tailed hawk calling on branch
in foreground, sound of wave in channel
inscribed that this present
pictured, illustrated
that in such showing, sight,
extraordinary appears
orange circle of sun rising on horizon,
white clouds in pale blue sky above it
Steve,
Steely skies letting loose here with wild serial drenchings, thunder booms and occasional small hail... but at least no killer apps sighted in The Cloud as yet.
You’ve identified and described something important. I’m not surprised the thought came to you in the dark. You can’t see the cloud there, but in dread you can feel it. It’s in the room, just out of reach, but lying in wait.
I encountered the cloud several times last month. On one occasion, we attended the same business “networking” gathering at a local country club. The cloud was the guest of honor and his evocative name and lovely portrait festooned the hand-out materials, raising expectations. He took up a lot of space and time, but had very little to say. He was simply a mass of hot air, outsourcing under another name.
thoughtful words......that part that put his best on it...
Curtis and Sandra, gracias.
Curtis, yes, one feels the inside of The Cloud, but does not see it.
An image of a great fog bank incoming over the Grand Banks occurs to me.
Banks I suppose were remotely connected, in some way, actually a negative way, with that night thought process as well.
I am told that the purpose of The Cloud, if it has any, is to provide a playing field for all those greedy little apps and ops, so that, before long, all this cloudy thought will then materialize as something one can drag to the bank.
It has been pointed out to me that my failure to capitalize on The Cloud, while yet being manifestly lost inside it, represents a deep contradiction.
I would prefer to think it simply reflects my failure to enter the millennium. It appears one can actually live in the benighted, unmonetized past while yet being enveloped by The Cloud in the present. Worst of both worlds, or best?
But as we are told it is now one minute to midnight, as with Cinderella, and The Cloud may have evaporated before I complete this sentence, perhaps all this is moot, in any case.
I'm pretty sure The Cloud is an imposter, akin to another replacement telephone system for the office that will soon be replaced again (and again) and eventually be forgotten. In the future, I imagine referring to The Cloud will “date” a person and make them seem like a fossil to younger colleagues.
That being said, I expect to be meeting up with The Cloud and some of his cohorts for coffee next Monday and will report back if I'm not swallowed up and devoured instead. I'm leaving forwarding numbers and a letter in a safe deposit box explaining things just in case.
Curtis,
Perhaps the best personal safety precaution in future encounters with The Cloud & co. would be to bring along Eduardo.
(This occurred to me when, a moment ago, Angelica uttered a curious sound, and upon investigation I saw that the large white male cat, who feels quite protective, or shall I say possessive, toward her, was sitting atop her head. Which caused me to imagine that with Eduardo discreetly perched atop your head at that coffee date, you would surely have nothing to fear from The Cloud, which, I would hazard a guess, must react to cranial opossum attachments much as vampires react to garlic.)
Interesting post tom, I was thinking that if you are true to your self it does not matter selling or not cause it is real any way, as long as the thought of future sellings do not influence your work.
Take care and congratulations on your books, I am really happy for you tom.
Mariana,
This is a subject to which I have given a lot of thought lately and I am afraid I keep ending up back where I started, in the dark.
In the past few years I have been giving my work away both on the internet and in books. This has the disadvantage of leaving me without income and the advantage of allowing me to do the sort of work I wish to do. I am aware that in the present environment it might well be the case that even were I to attempt to sell the work into which I have put what remains of whatever that thing is that I call "soul", no one would be buying. In any case I've stopped selling, there are no buyers on the horizon and the value of this postcommercial purity definitely remains to be seen.
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