Shouts From Down Under

Tsk! Come on boy! You can do much better...lift your GAME!

There is a monkey on my shoulder, right now.

His name is Andre.

How he came to be here is a strange tale, and of somewhat criminal ambiance, so I better not give self incriminating details away here, suffice to quietly mumble something about hostages, deprivation of liberty, and banana bribery of Brother Nature's less than picayune primate from a place preferably private.

STATIC

Yellow pages; the number of awakening...  (E) Can you hear a noise? I'm sure it's...probably thnf semlinth plagnfth.. #1975678 by Sparky

I've tried to send this primate packing, to bid the baboon bye bye but best plans, as you know, are not always reasonable and cooperative.

This leads me to a post I saw from Sir Richard Branson, whose wisdom may not feel agreeable or comfort zone-ish.

And how does being a sod of a bloke have anything to do with writing, the rendering of righteous railings?

http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/the-unreasonable-man

I'm talking about pushing ourselves beyond imitation, far past passive pathetic-ness and on to better brilliance.

If we are merely reasonable with ourselves in terms of our writing standard, then where will we be at any time in the future?
We'll be about where we are right now. The same.

In my writing efforts, I find that the only time I can write stuff that pushes my own limits, is when I can focus 100% on the writing, and the quality of it.

No excuses. It has to be nailed to the floor. It has to sound excellent. Perfect. It has to capture the intended mood. I want it to effect people's entire being when they read it. I want it to reflect my own feelings or those of the character like a freshly cleaned mirror.

So, in this context, I think Richard Branson's opinion on the unreasonable man is positive, correct, and helpful. It's good advice.

Perhaps not for everyone. We don't all want to be billionaires, or to push our staff or ourselves to higher limits. We don't all want to get the Pullitzer prize next week. We don't all burn to be published.

I'll have to do something about Andre. He want's to go on a trip back to the Northern Hemisphere. And I'm starting to feel a bit bad, keeping him locked away in a horrible place, a place where the mind is beset with distortion, twisted and bent to unreasonable shapes, extreme shapes, ugly shapes, so ugly that they hold a beauty of their own.

The beauty of being unreasonable. Isn't unreasonable another word for insane?

Sparky

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