The Obvious Dementia1
by Derick Varn
A handsome female does a flirtatious act and performs a ritual spiral belly dance and sexuality bombards the senses of some blundering male. A neurotic, fat-mouthed, politically minded, neo-elitist gives meaning to the Christian myth of the Tower of Babel as he complains tirelessly. Tremors of rapture run through a cute pre-teen girl as she receives her first full kiss and her heart melts like a salted slug. All these things are daily events in the postmodern2 world of men as they have been daily events since the most primordial times of human history3. All these things represent aspects of human experience and all these things invoke complex emotion. All these facets bring so much meaning into people's lives and, yet, nature sees these things as unimportant4.
The writer blends the rational structure of language with the aesthetics of emotion, throwing in political, psychological, historical, sexual, and philosophical arguments in the soup to give a plot a personal spice5. Most authors do not write for these reasons; however, most professional authors of fiction think they start writing for several reasons, mostly for the attention and because that fell a "calling" to do so6.
Emotions are mere hormones, electrical nervous impulses, firing neurons, and bodily reactions. They are also the only things in understandable human experience that are truly supernatural--they exist a priori7. The emotions are what make a reader feel the power of the writer's creativity and its relevance to the world around them8. The emotions bring unity9; the writer lets his talent shine as annoying and constantly as inter-city neon lights, thus giving his work its uniqueness10.
This is a somewhat paradoxical viewpoint--in all honesty, it sounds like some insane, bullshit theory11--because each piece of work has a definite meaning apart from simple plot and complex emotion. Conveying life in subjective emotional terms serves rational objective ideals12--even if we prostitute ourselves to the pimps of genres, success, and/or hardcore dogmatic philosophies13. Even those writers amongst us who sold their souls to publishers14, so that they could produce a novel that sells and places them on some best seller list, still parlay relevant and important observations about their world¼ even if there observations are shallow. Emotions have always appeared to be something beyond mankind's rather limited understanding of the universe, but that's what has made the artist, the poet, the architect, the dancer, the singer, and the author so special15.
The mystical side of life is simply a mixture of emotion and need for secure "knowledge." The mystical elements of religion invoke the same positive hysteria that is seen at rock concerts, musical ballets, or when witnessing a beautiful natural phenomena. Even in the dogmas and pretenses of organized religion, which serves only the power of social graces, appeals are made by the subjective magic of mystical emotions and mind states. This is why I often incorporate mythology and the "supernatural" into my work. They can help make concrete expressions of emotions or abstract concepts and ideas. Mythology also serves to contact us to our primitive ancestors, thus expressing one simple fact: humanity has changed little in the way they feel. I feel that an author can make allusions to religious concepts without being an occultist. In fact, on these premises I made one simple observation¼ it appears that artists and mystic have always been a primitive form of the modern psychologist. What religions both "East" and "West" have in common is that their myths served as metaphors for human condition and the nature of human beings' psyche at that time and in that place. It is surprising how often what is thought to be objective and eternal truth is a mere reflection of what lies within pools of the human brain.16
A quote from Soren Kierkegaard that sums up why I am writing this: "I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations--one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it--you will regret both."--Either/Or, Volume Two.17
--Derick Varn, January 15, 199818
Footnotes
1. This essay was written by yours truly three years ago. It’s strikingly different in purpose and style than most of what I write now. I was a hundred times more pretentious than I am at the moment, which is funny considering I am updating this article with footnotes, that oh-so-unpretentious fad in Academia and in contemporary literature. Thanks David Foster Wallace for stealing an idea so helpful to my publishing career. –Derick Varn, October 28, 2001
2. Please ignore this annoying buzz word. Besides the annoyance of something that means “after-the-current” as a literary moment is now over, it’s an unoriginal term anyway. To parphrase what a music critic at Pitchfork once said when he saw the genre label, Post-Rock, “wouldn’t suck if rock was called ‘post-Jazz’.”
3. Take it from someone who knows, unless someone cites a specific primordial time, they are being deliberately vague because they haven’t bother to look up said primordial time. Or, perhaps more likely, did do the research and realized that they were wrong.
4. Ever read the Preface to Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads . . . obviously I did.
5. Can you say “duh,” I can.
6. I now know that when a writer says he has a “calling,” he really means, “I was really bored.”
7. Okay, I know a priori opens up a big Greek can of worms involving things like skepticism, epistemic warrant, metaphysics, and a whole lot of other jargon that doesn’t really matter outside of winning a debate.
8. Again, “duh.”
9. So “Emotions bring unity” is obviously a stupid assertion on my part. Yes, jingoistic rhetoric about unity inspires equally asinine responses, but anyone who has ever watched a religious debate know that complex emotions–while universal–do anything but unify.
10. Only in America would there be a term like “uniqueness.”
11. Because it is a bullshit theory, as most literary justifications are. “Integrity has no need of rules.”–Albert Camus.
12. This is my nice way of saying “all writing is propaganda.”
13. Ignore the fact that I was whoring myself to sentimentalism at the time and this statement rings true.
14. Most effective writers sell their souls to readers, so maybe selling it to publishers is just a way of expanding your income.
15. This translates to “Anyone who is or remotely resembles a Luddite is my friend.” Ignore the fact that I am publishing this on an internet journal and you’ll be just fine.
16. I hereby apologize to anyone who has read Jung. I should have let the master rant this for himself, when I said these things, they just sounded silly.
17. This part of the essay, despite its apparent randomness, is probably the truest thing I have ever stolen from someone who somebody seems to think is important.
18. Thank you for tolerating this exercise is retrospection.
Derick Varn is a poet and longstanding contributor to Unlikely Stories. Check out his literary works at this site.