I want writers to get their thrill back, their POWER

[Desiremakesmeweak]

And by power I mean power in society; that they have a special and powerful place in society.

Writers tell stories of course, and give written down perspectives to human life and how we all exist in our daily lives.

Writers have always faced occasional disrespect and the potential opprobium of society, especially the privileged of society, whenever writers challenge the basis of that privilege.

But writers are the intellectual form of the shaman, especially for we who consider ourselves part of the advanced, educated, 'modern' world.

I hear a lot of valid complaints - and have done over decades now - about how writers are seldom paid properly or even at all. My view now after many years, is that we must regard ourselves literally AS the shaman elite of the advanced world: when WE find the buffalo herds, and lead the rest to them, and everyone eats...

...we also eat. Bigly.

And for the small price of a single barrel proof firewater, I too will point those who want, to where the herds shall soon arrive.

 

[Hypoxia]

And for the small price of a single barrel proof firewater, I too will point those who want, to where the herds shall soon arrive.

Are you sharing the hootch? You know how to discern writers at a book fair, right? They're clustered around the drinks and snacks. Especially the scrawny poets, slurping down every available calorie and dram.

Q: What's the difference between poets and songwriters?
A: Royalties.

Shamanizing the world requires grabbing hearts and minds. Words on their own may fall behind. Deliver words with music and spectacle. Affect more folks, make money and sustain a career, etc. Or write because you must, but don't expect much attention. Your little magic spell may be lost in the wind.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

"...and for firewater," spake Alfred Damon Runyon.

Nah. I don't do words for money. Last time I did it just bought me a lot of local attention and a ton of jealousy.

 

[SimonDoom]

My view is a bit different. I think writers are better off not focusing on their status in society, whether they are shamans or something else. Focus instead on writing the best you can.

I've never found a buffalo herd. I'd probably suck at that, and I'd be concerned about the tribe that depended on me to find one. But I'm not going to worry about it too much. I'm just going to think about the next words I type for my current story, and I hope it turns out OK.

 

[Jessewett]

I find your view of writers and their place in modern society optimistic, and somewhat inflated. I see no evidence that great literature and art has any real effect on the mass of the population or those who govern it. The 'power' of the writer is swept aside most easily by the power of the tycoons and tyrants...
But the point is, none of that matters. Literature and art need no such endorsement, being worthy in and of themselves. A writer offers ideas, some more valuable than others. He/she should not fret about their power, about the size of his audience. The integrity of the effort is enough. Do your work, let the chips fall.

 

[Hypoxia]

I've never found a buffalo herd.

Take a driving tour of Yellowstone. You'll be surrounded. We were stuck in traffic on twisty two-lane asphalt when the herd ran down the hill, roiled around us, and moved on. Giveaway: they grunt and stink.

ObTopic: The pen may be mightier than the sword if inserted properly.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

These made me chuckle:

"...I'd be concerned about the tribe that depended on me." (On writers' shamanic powers to provide for the tribe).

"Literature and art..." (If you say so).

" - they grunt and stink." (Herds of Buffalo).

"The pen may be mightier than the sword if inserted properly." (It's illegal though, isn't it?).

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I know of only two vocations that make money telling lies: fiction writers and politicians.

 

[SimonDoom]

Take a driving tour of Yellowstone. You'll be surrounded. We were stuck in traffic on twisty two-lane asphalt when the herd ran down the hill, roiled around us, and moved on. Giveaway: they grunt and stink.

ObTopic: The pen may be mightier than the sword if inserted properly.

I've done that. I've seen the bison walking on the road in front of my car. At the time my concern was with exercising good driving skills so I didn't hit one rather than on my pseudo-shamanistic skills to find where they were, because in Yellowstone any fool can find bison.

 

[Hypoxia]

I know of only two vocations that make money telling lies: fiction writers and politicians.

Advertising firms and other PR swine. Evangelists. Conservative think tanks. Astrologers. Salesfolk of used cars, health foods, beauty products (c.f. Paltrow / Goop), and cellphone plans. Realtors. Faux Newz turds. Corporate spox. Forgers. Plagiarists. Et al.

...in Yellowstone any fool can find bison.

Depends on whether one lays stoned in the back of the VW van. Mea culpa: That was me in the summer of '75. But I noticed when one peered in. Can't miss a buffalo eye, nope, not when it's aimed at you.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

We are at the dawn of a new day.

When the industrialized printing presses in New York spewed out broadsheets that people tossed a small coin across to take from the paper boy on the street corner, editors PAID writers to compose essays and short stories and longer serialized work too.

And people LOVED the entertainment. And pulp fiction sold well.

And there was a market for writing and therefore employment for writers doing 'straight' writing.

Now, we have a different technology and few have authentically sorted out HOW the market in it for content really functions.

But they will.

I know. I am a S.H.A.M.A.N.

And the herd is coming this way SOON. But no, not every fool knows which yellow stone is G.O.L.D.

 

[SimonDoom]

Depends on whether one lays stoned in the back of the VW van. Mea culpa: That was me in the summer of '75. But I noticed when one peered in. Can't miss a buffalo eye, nope, not when it's aimed at you.

Yeah, in the 1970s there were far fewer bison than there are now. Nowadays there are so many in Yellowstone that no amount of weed is going to keep you from bumping into one.

I've got my hands full being the things I am already. I'll leave it to others to take on the shaman mantle.

 

[NightSailor]

Focus instead on writing the best you can.

Agreed.

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

I like to write stories. If people read then and rate them highly here it makes me happy. If I make money off my writing. I won't say no to it. I would respectfully submit that if you get too mystical and entitled about your role you run the risk of being incapable of accepting constructive criticism about your writing. Or anything else.

Just saying.

 

[lustatopia]

I like the idea of writers as modern shamans.

However, it is good to recall what a shaman really is. It's not an easy life or one that most people would want to live. It's not well remunerated. It's usually short and ends brutally. A shaman is also in part a con artist who knows not only magic but the means to trick people into believing in his magic.

First, one has to be chosen to be a shaman from a young age. Promising signs of impending shamanic potential are: a gimp leg or a humped back or latent homosexual tendencies and psychotic episodes including spontaneous hallucinations. Perhaps a weeping birthmark or an extra digit on the left foot might also help the resume, as does a precocious interest in chemistry and the guileful arts. In general, a potential shaman must show no aptitude for any kind of honestly productive occupation within the tribe such as hunting, farming, tool making, weaving. It's either the shamanic path or be banished.

Second, after being singled out as having potential, one must make a desperately dangerous inner journey with the help of strong psychedelic drugs and fasting, while being utterly lost in a dangerous wilderness surrounded by man-eating beasts. Even if one survives, it is not enough. Unless one returns having been given a new name as well as the imprimatur of the local deities to wield power.

Thirdly, after returning from the wilderness with a new name and the imprimatur of the gods, the newly minted shaman must immediately perform some great miracle to secure his social standing as a true shaman with the tribal elite or be outcast as a fraud. The miracle might be as subtle as interpreting a dream to the chief's amazement or as dramatic as pulling out and congealing the poison from a dying warrior's wound into quartz crystals, thus saving said warrior's life before an awed audience.

And finally, the shaman has to maintain his willingness to risk all on frequent journeys into the nether world, often flying at night in the worst weather regardless of personal safety on errands for good or evil, knowing his soul is already long forfeited in exchange for his or her powers. A shaman's reputation is never secure until his many great deeds are the stuff of legends told around camp fires by all the clans.

 

[Hypoxia]

Second, after being singled out as having potential, one must make a desperately dangerous inner journey with the help of strong psychedelic drugs and fasting, while being utterly lost in a dangerous wilderness surrounded by man-eating beasts.

That's not only for shaman candidates. I can think of Native American peoples who subjected all aspirants to manhood to toloaché / datura / jimson weed stew and let them realize their linkage to the other world. You sit alone, wasted, and interact with spirits, ancestors, creatures, all totally real. It's the most powerful ideological conditioning imaginable.