Life on a Pole

Memoirs seem to go through fads. There was the recent fad of memoirs about horrifically and quite creatively abused children grown to adulthood against all odds (many of which were fabricated, doing a disserve to all true abuse victims). Then there was the fad of memoirs by previously silent holocaust victims whose stories included poetic or unusual twists (many of which were fabricated, doing a disservice to all true holocaust victims).

Now it seems that memoirs of strippers, or more exactly, writers, journalists or housewives trying out the roles of strippers for a little while to gain some kind of insight into something or other, are in vogue. In my time I have had occasion to converse and spend time with a fair number of strippers, erotic dancers and/or prostitutes (and not in SL, though I have known a number there too), so the stereotypes found in these books and listed in the following excellent article make me laugh a good deal.

The one thing I learned in some very seamy dives, beyond the fact that a pro who busies herself with her lipstick while refusing to look at you does NOT want to sleep with you and will be worse than normal and that a smile defuses almost any situation that doesn’t include the misuse of sporting equipment, is that in the end, you do what you need to do to get by…which apparently can include writing memoirs of your week as a stripper. Live and learn.

Writers Writing About Writers Writing

It has always amused me that just a few years ago so many people were quite certain that the internet and computers would destroy writing skills. Admittedly, it HAS destroyed the intricate rituals that I used to go through when writing letters. I no longer need to look for parchment stationary, or black sealing wax, or pressed roses and lilies to include in the envelopes. I no longer have to carefully select postage stamps that were in some way appropriate or carried meanings, or carefully write intricate, coded patterns of information along the outside of the envelope. Those, to be honest, were the affectations of a much younger man and I have neither the time or inclination to them now.

However, I do simply WRITE far more due to computers then I ever used to, in many different veins and registers, using many different tools. I have this blog and its blend of commentary and poetry, my technology writing at www.mobilitysite.com, my daily twitters of Haiku and lyrics, and any numbers of emails and IM conversations every day…and this doesn’t even include the writing that people actually pay me for.

I would say that by sheer dint of volume alone, computers have improved my writing tremendously. Fanfic sites and forums honed my ability to turn a phrase or catch a nuance. MUDs and MUCKs taught me to describe scenes and people with drama and clarity. ICQ, then Yahoo, then gchat and twitter forced me to explore the beauty in being concise. Chatrooms in places like Nerve first showed me the emotional power in just a few lines of carefully rendered imagery. More and more people are writing more and more in the internet age, as the following article discusses so well. The internet is actually making ALL of us write better.

Now…penmenship…that is another thing COMPLETELY.