29 April 2010
On reading and rereading and rerereading
If people had cared about such things back in the 80s, when I was little—and if my parents believed in them—I probably would have been diagnosed with a learning disability. Whether or not it would have been an accurate diagnosis, I can’t really say. What I do know is that, for all the books I pick up, I rarely finish any of them in a timely manner (if at all), because a new idea always seizes my attention. And every idea has to be explored.
To say it happens a lot would be an understatement. (Consequently, I read at an agonizingly slow pace. For me, 20 pages per hour is borderline miraculous. Realistically, it’s closer to ten.) I realize that, in 100 words, I have managed to destroy the pseudo-intellectual image I have spent two decades constructing. Hopefully, those I’ve duped into thinking my mind is in any way normal will not bother to read this.
So, yes, maybe I have been working on Swann’s Way since 2006, but my hyperactive synapses are not entirely an unrelenting hindrance—at least, I don’t think they are. The Indie Handbook was an idea I had whilst reading Thom Reynolds’ I Hate Myself and Want to Die, and that seems to be working out ok.
Last night, I was reading the new issue of Lula Magazine—well, I say “reading”, I spent 90 minutes on the same two-page interview I’ve attempted every night for a week. Lula is probably the single most inspiring periodical I have ever encountered, and though Issue Ten hasn’t quite knocked me senseless the way Nine (the phenomenal tribute to redheads) did, but it gave me an idea. I don’t know if it’s an Indie Handbook caliber idea, but it could prove interesting.
I am starting a magazine.
If you’ve got 20 minutes, I would encourage you to watch this video. It’s the TED equivalent of Lula Nine and it is pertinent to the topic at hand.
An Indie Handbook Annex 