My written art

Here's a story about James Joyce, told by Stephen King (On Writing)

A friend came to visit James Joyce one day and found the great man sprawled across his writing desk in a posture of utter despair.
'James, what’s wrong?' the friend asked. 'Is it the work?'
Joyce indicated assent without even raising his head to look at his friend. Of course it was the work; isn’t it always?
'How many words did you get today?' the friend pursued.
Joyce (still in despair, still sprawled facedown on his desk): 'Seven.'
'Seven? But James… that’s good, at least for you.'
'Yes,' Joyce said, finally looking up. 'I suppose it is… but I don’t know what order they go in!'

I looked up the word "ephemeral" the other day.  Sometimes I look up a word I know for no apparent reason.  And as I was looking over the comments, I saw this:

"Life is too ephemeral."

I instantly cringed when I saw this.  Doesn't it just sound so crude?  Short bro, short.  "Life is too short," or "life is fleeting," is fine, but "life is too ephemeral?"  It sounds like someone looked up a thesaurus and replaced an easy word with a difficult one in an effort to sound smart.  But just change the order, and there's magic:

Life too, is ephemeral. 

Oh the beauty of the written art.

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.” 

-George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

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Someone told me the other day that my writing was wonderful, which was nice but not so flattering (oh my arrogance!).  Well, I had written the letter in Korean so the compliment meant something but really, words like great, marvelous, wonderful, fabulous, are not only subjective but merely denote a positive feeling towards something.  

An articulate compliment per se would say that a writing is succinct, witty, or genuine.  Sure, these are all subjective too, but it goes beyond "I like this."  It says, "I like this because."  

And it's so much more powerful. 

I shou“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”

– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946

Read more at http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-favorite-quotations-about-words-vol-1/clear-language.html#6W5qf4bxi4VYQA8v.99

I just spent an afternoon debating whether to replace a dash with a comma.  The answer is always the same.  Replace. 

But at least I know that I prefer en dashes over em dashes, with a space on each side.  Heresy I know, but it just looks so much better.

Oblivious

I decided to give in and check out what this EXO fad was all about (a boy group in Korea/China).  Four months ago when several zit-faced adolescent girls enthusiastically explained some nonsense about EXO-K and EXO-M having superpowers, coming from different planets, losing their memory and living on Earth thinking they were human, that was it for me.  I thought to myself, I would rather read twilight.  Well, not really.  

But I did want to ask how these idiots failed to see the marketing ploy behind having two groups, one singing in Korean (EXO-K) and the other in Mandarin (EXO-M), to the identical tune. I also wanted to ask whether their superpowers included interspecific intercourse (or extraterrestrial intercourse?), but decided in favor of my better judgment.

Mockery demystifies, but also angers.  One ought to use it sparingly.

Anyway, I watched the video and I must admit, embarrassingly, that I was blown away.  Not by their voice (though the song is surprisingly good), nor their dance (fantastic), nor their face (don’t give a fuck, but I really needed a third example), but by the camerawork.  They only use one viewpoint throughout the entire music video.  Maybe the idea was copied but I’ve never seen such camera work before. 

So I proceeded to watch the video about 30 times, completely mesmerized.  And then I realized that I was listening to Chinese. 

I’m really glad that I’m not a pilot.  Ho Lee Fuk. 

cacoethes scribendi

The best way to deal with my cacoethes scribendi is to write more.  As simple as that. 

Possibly the best compliment I have ever received

Well, may be not the best ever, but in a while:

"You deserve all the praise you get (from me, at least). I love your methodology, insight and tone. Pragmatic and materialist, but attuned to broad trends and human sympathy; eloquent but with a cheerfully ironic self-deprecation. I only wish we had talked more already. Hopefully we'll compensate some in future!"

Another compliment that comes close was by a person whom I've never met - Elizabeth's friend who told her: "who is this fred paik. he is amazing. i can tell by his writing."  

And Lillian, who upon reading a draft of my love letter, said "well, this is one of the best love letters I've ever read."  

And to Elizabeth, who is the pretty much the only person who visits this blog, or the only person who comments at least. 

I don't write for approval, but they sure are encouraging.  Thank you. 

I need to be honest with myself.

No one really reads my blog but it's still a shame that none of my friends and acquaintances wrote back on any of my religious posts.  I did want to hear the best arguments possible for the existence of God.  If a convincing argument could be made, I would be more than glad to switch over to the theist side.  After all, this is not about winning or losing, but it's about being closer to the truth.

But the truth is, the more I hear from theists, the less convinced I become.  Whether I listen to the apologetics or pastors, I always edge closer to the side of non-theists.  In this critique's opinion, neither side can prove their claim, but non-theist's arguments are simply superior. 

And after all the logical arguments have passed, one simply has to wonder - does it really make any sense?  Really?  An omnipotent God sits around for about 15 billion years, and then decides to make human beings based on his image in some remote corner of the universe.  Every time people do something wrong, he says that's enough and eradicates them, either by flood, burning sulfur, or through genocides.  And then he impregnates some virgin, to save the humans whom he wiped out just couple thousand year ago, from himself, by sacrificing himself, to himself.  And then he mysteriously disappears, only to live in the hearts of the believers.

Why didn't he just sacrifice himself to begin with, when Adam first sinned or before killing so many people from the floods?  I'm sure there were many innocent children during the flood, in Sodom & Gomorrah, and the Amalekite tribe.  And still, even in this day and age, 11 million children under the age of 5 die every year.  What have they done wrong?  Why are prayers of 11 million parents unanswered?  Prayer is nothing but a placebo.

If you want to believe in the Christian God, you have two monumental proofs ahead of you.  First, you have to prove that God exists, and then you have to prove that the deity and the Christian God are the same.  People often assume the second, but to me, the second argument is equally improbable as the first.  An almighty God, who shows us no evidence except for a very poorly written book, flooded with scientific and historical errors, not to mention all the contradictions within the four gospels... I don't find it to be very convincing.  In fact, I'm mad at myself for not studying the book in closer scrutiny. 

At this point, I have admit it.  I am an atheist.  I wonder how many people back at home will still call me friends.  This is a boon in a way.  

Some time ago, I broke up with someone whom I truly loved because I knew she wouldn't be happy living with a non-religious person like myself.  I do miss her from time to time, but I still stand by my decision.  I need to be honest with myself.