Oh, for fuck's sake.

[apocalypsos]

The Republicans are holding up unemployment benefits extensions again, along with Reid, who decided that instead of forcing the session to keep going to help families without jobs they might as well just go on vacation for two weeks like they planned, WOOHOO! And it's just another reminder just how sick and fucking tired I am of hearing how the unemployed adore being able to sit at home collecting a check that's smaller than their usual, being unable to pay for their COBRA once the subsidy goes away, possibly losing their homes while they attempt to romance HR people in a career environment where there are five out-of-work people for every one job opening, getting more and more depressed as you start to feel more and more worthless when no one will call you back. Not that I have any experience with being unemplo-- oh, wait.

*sigh*

In happier news, I've been listening to Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter at work and it makes my heart fill with GLEE. I just want to draw pink sparkly hearts all around it.

Although, I was talking about it to the girl in the next cubicle at work and she said, "Let me ask you a question ... if you want to be a writer, why do you read?" And I literally sat there gaping for a long moment because I didn't know how to answer. Not because I don't know why I like to read, but because that is a mind-boggling question to put to words. Shouldn't it occur to someone before they even say the words, much less once the words come out, why someone who wanted to be a writer might read? Or maybe that they just might like to? And I thought maybe she asked because she wanted to know why I might waste precious writing time reading, but the reason I started listening to audiobooks at work -- and I told her as much when I started listening to them -- was that all of my free time was devoted to trying to write. So, yeah, that was a weird moment.

Urgh, I should probably go make breakfast before I starve to death.

Comments

[shadowwolf13]

For what it's worth, every single writer that I'm in love with has said that successful writers are huge readers. To read is to know what's out there, to pick up tips on what works and what doesn't, to familiarize yourself with the playing field. So call it research and relaxation all rolled into one. ;)

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

If you want to be a painter, why do you look at pictures? If you want to be a filmmaker, why do you watch films? If you want to be a chef, why do you eat? Well, okay, maybe that one's a bit obvious, but then so should the answer be. A, to learn how the best (or the ones you like best) do it; two, because you can't write all the time; and thirdly, because good grief, it's all part of the same thing. The love of writing is the love of reading. You write for the pleasure of reading what you've written. (Except for chapter fourteen, of course, but you can fix that later.) And when other people read it, that pleasure is raised to the power of lots.

[kreutzmarie.livejournal.com]

Well, shit. I'm a month away from having a masters in music, so apparently I've been wasting one hell of a lot of time listening to music. For that matter, I've listened to the same pieces get performed by more than 8 different people/ensembles! Wtf have I been thinking?!?

I'm so screwed! *flails*

[sophie-448.livejournal.com]

Yes, because writing, like all creative pursuits, results from the mystical inspiration of muses and should spring fully formed from the creator's pen. Not like it takes work and learning and maybe taking note of how other people do it might be useful. Or, yes, even enjoyable to someone who obviously cares about the written word. Wow. I am MEAN before my coffee.

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

It's totally fucked up that they're doing that, but I'm even more hopeless because my dad doesn't even HAVE unemployment benefits, and he's been out of work almost a year. He didn't qualify because his employers didn't "exactly" fire him, he sort of wanted to go, but no really they basically pushed him out the door and it was all just fuzzy enough to mean he's had NO MONEY coming in for 10 months. I'm really angry for him and worried and yeah. He has to sell his house soon, which itself will not be a fun job, and after that... well. I don't know.

Um, sorry about the random rant. It's just really upsetting. Obviously the other situation is just as bad for people and congress should work to help them, but it angers me that my dad doesn't even have that tiny amount of support.

[astaria51.livejournal.com]

I don't know you, really, but my mom was in a similar position for a long time a while back, and will be again in a month, and I just wanted to express my sympathies and good thoughts for your family. It's rough.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

I've heard some people say that reading others' books can stifle their own creativity. It's possible that's what she meant, but I don't know her so that could have been the last thing on her mind.

[fyrdrakken]

She does sound horrifyingly clueless, and also like the kind of person who doesn't understand why anyone would want to read for fun.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

That's clueless at an epic level. That's Amanda Palmer clueless.

[astaria51.livejournal.com]

Nah, it doesn't have that subtle, delightful undertone of "LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME I'M SO CONTROVERSIAL" quite yet.

[astaria51.livejournal.com]

Maybe she was asking, thinking, "if you read so much, maybe you'll be too influenced by what you read", but ...it's still a stupid question.

I've decided that legislative positions need to be paid minimum wage.

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

The best writers are voracious readers. Why?

- Ya gotta know what the competition is writing.
- Ya gotta be able to tell what's good and what's crap.
- Ya gotta know what the popular styles are nowdays.
- Ya gotta know the old stuff before you write the new stuff.
- Ya gotta know what's out there so you can steal it (I mean, er... retell the story in a timely and sensitive manner.)
- Ya gotta know what you want to say before you write it.
- Ya gotta know what it's like to _be_ read by reading others
- And about a billion other reasons.

Reading IS writing. It's just coming at it from the finished direction instead of the unfinished one. Reading is looking back; writing is looking forward.

Guh! I wanna smack that girl next to you. But I teach writing for a living, so I have to be cool about ignorant twaddling fools like that.