Honesty is the best policy and if anyone knows that, it’s Baxter. He really just says it how it is and I really appreciate that, especially in a world like today when everyone feels so fake. The way he spoke about wisdom shocked me at first. I felt that he was only being negative and pessimistic and it was just him venting and ranting on about something to make himself feel better. Yet as I kept on reading, I started agreeing with him. What I realized is that unlike everyone else in the world he isn’t doing what he is doing for the sake of society, but rather just for himself. He isn’t following the rules or guidelines of appropriateness so that he doesn’t offend anyone. Instead he just speaking about the way he sees it. And that honesty is what made the biggest impact on me in his article, “Full of It”. One of my favorite parts is right at the beginning when he says , “My trouble is that I don’t really believe in most wisdom: not in this letter to you, not my own wisdom, not anybody’s. As you must know by now, most “wisdom” is not wisdom. It’s pernicious attitudinizing bullshit.” He is pretty much just calling everyone out on being phony. I got a little lost in what he saying as he spoke about being a fiction writer, but then I got it when he spoke about being an early writer, and discussed kind of how naïve and excited and blinded young writers are. That is how I felt as an early dancer as well, and I think it applies to all art and rather all life. Yet, it is necessary in order to really kick off your passion, making all of those mistakes in the fog of your hunger. All in all, Baxter’s article was really interesting and honest, and I appreciated what he had to say.Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Let's Be Honest for Once
Honesty is the best policy and if anyone knows that, it’s Baxter. He really just says it how it is and I really appreciate that, especially in a world like today when everyone feels so fake. The way he spoke about wisdom shocked me at first. I felt that he was only being negative and pessimistic and it was just him venting and ranting on about something to make himself feel better. Yet as I kept on reading, I started agreeing with him. What I realized is that unlike everyone else in the world he isn’t doing what he is doing for the sake of society, but rather just for himself. He isn’t following the rules or guidelines of appropriateness so that he doesn’t offend anyone. Instead he just speaking about the way he sees it. And that honesty is what made the biggest impact on me in his article, “Full of It”. One of my favorite parts is right at the beginning when he says , “My trouble is that I don’t really believe in most wisdom: not in this letter to you, not my own wisdom, not anybody’s. As you must know by now, most “wisdom” is not wisdom. It’s pernicious attitudinizing bullshit.” He is pretty much just calling everyone out on being phony. I got a little lost in what he saying as he spoke about being a fiction writer, but then I got it when he spoke about being an early writer, and discussed kind of how naïve and excited and blinded young writers are. That is how I felt as an early dancer as well, and I think it applies to all art and rather all life. Yet, it is necessary in order to really kick off your passion, making all of those mistakes in the fog of your hunger. All in all, Baxter’s article was really interesting and honest, and I appreciated what he had to say.
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I like how you related this article to your dancing. I also really thought his writing was refreshing. I find myself to be a fairly honest person, but often in society we are muted from what we want to say or stopped from doing what we truly want to do, yet Baxter does the opposite. He does what he wants and says what he is thinking. Your post really illustrates this.
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