I'm eager to embark on another reading adventure.
My Kindle is full of books, and my shelves are overflowing, but more and more, I just want to revisit old novels. Watership Down, because the rabbit protanonists are so heroic and lovable, and the underdog (under-rabbit!) who was so wimpy, timid, dreamy, and "useless" became the leader and champion of his people (er, rabbits). I love a happy ending. This one left me in tears because our hero grows old and dies but oh how beautifully the scene is written!
To embark on a literary adventure is to enter the world of another human's imagination. Ok these days it could be the work of an AI, but that is a topic I prefer not to think of right now.
World-building
When a writer stands in line at the grocery store with nothing better to do than plan dinner, check off things on the to-do list dream up a whole world inspired by that crabby old lady slowing things at the checkout line. She pulls cash from her wallet and counts out nickels, dimes, and pennies, when the swipe of plastic would be so much quicker. Who is this last-century woman with her Old School ways and her distrust of credit cards? By the time her last item is bagged, I have her dressed in a long black coat (cashmere, wool, almost as old as she is), and she's walking the sidewalks picking up beverage cans to redeem for a nickel each, and she is about to enter the alley, where--
FIVE MINUTES ARE UP
I was about to embark on an adventure with the maddening last-century woman counting out pennies but I already know someone just like her. This woman does not pay bills online. Ever. She does not trust cyber transactions. Someone hacked her credit card years ago and she's never again going to trust the system. Her five children roll their eyes and find her ways to be inconvenient, to say the least, but she is gearing up for the AI apocalypse, trusting nobody. (Least of all her kids.)
That topic again: AI, Artificial Intelligence...
This writer I know just published a book after letting BARD do most of the research. He edited, embellished, made it his own. Here is the email he sent me this morning:
BARD gathered most of the information, we (he and his wife) reformatted and corrected passages, but consciously did NOT do any extensive research on our own, aiming to
write and publish a useful book within 48 hours.
BARD greatly speeded up the process eliminating almost all the need to
do tedious searches, create an outline, and create boilerplate.
I will set a two day free period when it can be downloaded at no cost
if you would like to see the results.
Hmmmm.
Do I want to enter a fictional world created by Artificial Intelligence...?
Is this author cheating with BARD, or expediting the tedious business of writing and publishing his own books?
What would happen if I just posted a five-minute free write, unedited, unpolished?
What if I don't even look back at what I've written so far?
---At least, go in and add bold font and images.
Let's see what I can recall offhand. I want to #embark on an adventure to some fantastical world peopled by furries, or rabbits, or --
-- Have you seen Furries in the news lately?
What is it with people wearing these stifling costumes with expressionless faces -
To me they are as scary as clowns suddenly became to our children's generation.
What is it with 21st Century young people terrified by clowns and baby dolls (both known for a frozen expression, which is eerie and deathlike)?
You know me. I'm gonna go online and find something to hyperlink here for those who may not have heard of Furries.
Source: Photo by Douglas Muth
What’s the Deal with “Furries?”
The vast majority of furries create a fursona—that is, a furry-themed avatar used to interact with other members of the fandom. Fursonas typically consist of one or more animal species, a name, and personality traits or other characteristics. Given the fantasy-themed nature of the furry fandom, individual furries are free to create representations of themselves unbounded by reality. As such, they can reconceptualize themselves with regard to age, gender, personality, or physical characteristics. Research has shown that most furries create fursonas representing similar, but idealized versions of themselves. Many furries report that, over time, their own self-concept tends to become more like that of their fursona. This may be due to the fact that, over time, others begin to interact with them as that idealized self, validating it and helping them to internalize it as part of themselves.
IMAGE by me, yesterday, after I walked into the room to find my felines all in a row. Quite accidental, I swear. I did not pose Bobi the Bad or the stuffed lions and tiger. It all just fell into place.
These, however, were posed.
One daughter gave me the bigger lion (because the smaller, older Leo needed a companion? or Carol can never have too many toys?), while the other daughter gave me a green lion "made of real jade," she said (LOL! I can see the drip lines form the 3-D printer).
My amazing husband drew, in pencil, the image of my favorite Maine Coon.
Embark on an adventure without leaving your house: pick up a book and GO!
And before I go, here is a bit of wisdom inspired by the jade lion.
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.
~Confucius
@mariannewest's Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2060: embark
--Wait, where is Marianne?
Thank you so much, @mariannewest, for posting 2023 days of this daily prompt. Marianne is taking a well-earned break. Until she returns, the 5-minute freewrite prompt will be posted from this account, so don’t forget to follow!
Thank you,
whoever is filling in for her.
(Yes. I'll go find out!