Writing While the World Burns
What Matters is How We Writ(h)e in the Flames
The world is on fire. Political figures are murdered. School shootings and wars stack like bones in mass graves. Online venom drips from every feed — people tear each other apart like vultures fighting over scraps of tragedy. It’s loud. It’s violent. It’s hateful.
You, like me, may have recently found yourself wondering, “By gum! What’s a creative person to do with all this insanity a-brewin’? My stupid fiction doesn’t matter. My backlogs of poetry won’t douse the flames of a world gone mad. What’s the point?”
Except the world has always been on fire…
Despite what various people will tell you the world isn't only just now beginning to burn. Billy Joel wrote a whole damn song about it back in 1989 after a 21 year-old friend of Sean Lennon lamented living in such crazy times. Joel wound up writing “We Didn’t Start the Fire” to prove that any time is filled with chaos and instability.
But does the world really need art in strange, tumultuous times?
Of course we need art! Art often gives us the opportunity to translate the raw, scathing noise of reality into a shape we can recognize and face. Chaos without form is paralyzing, but giving it a frame makes it at least somewhat bearable.
I’ve always heard that misery loves company, but despair is fed by isolation. Art, whether you’re consuming it or creating it, builds connections with others. When someone reads your words or listens to your podcast and says, “Yes! I feel that too,” the chasm between people narrows, and that shared recognition fuels survival!
Art promotes and insists on human complexity even as social media, clickbait headlines and talking heads* stoke the flames of violence and political rage to reduce people to statistics and encourage division.
The act of creation is a declaration: life is still worth shaping. Every line written, photo taken, podcast recorded says, “I am not done yet. This life persists.”
Making something beautiful, funny, weird or thoughtful in a time when cruelty dominates is itself resistance. It says, “You can not take my capacity to imagine. You can not take my joy.”
And let’s not forget this gem from The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling:
It has forever been thus: so long as men write what they think, then all of the other freedoms - all of them - may remain intact. And it is then that writing becomes a weapon of truth, an article of faith, an act of courage.
So here’s me — writhing in the fire and writing through the burn. Not because my words will put the flames out, but because they remind me — and maybe, hopefully you — that we’re still here. We still get to make something. That ember is ours to tend, and ours to watch dance on the wind.
* Not these guys.
Since We Last Spoke…
Good Lord! What did I do since we last spoke? Let me look back at the last proper newsletter… OH! Right.
Writing
I don’t have anything to show from it, but I did manage to write a few thousand words on an on-going project I’ve been working on with my pal Jason Goss. It will likely be a long-ass time before anyone sees that though.
But if you’re just aching to read something, I did release a super old poem of mine from 2004 that I found in my old blog. I’ll probably keep releasing poems and writings here, but unlike the first, I’ll likely release them quietly by themselves as a blog, then link to them in the weekly newsletter like so:
From the Vault: “I See” 06/21/04 | An Early Poem by David C. Roberson
Artwork
I drew the Billy Joel caricature used at the top of this newsletter, so there’s that at least.
Podcasts
As usual, I created podcasts:
DC on SCREEN
Jason Goss and I had a blast talking about the newly-announced Man of Tomorrow film that James Gunn announced as well as conjecturing about the plot based on the three pieces of artwork they released.
There was of course a whole lot more to the episode as we talked about Superman profit margins, Peacemaker’s grammar fuck-up, Clayface Gotham City map easter eggs — I’m not listing it all, but it was good stuff.
And then of course we did a review episode for the latest Peacemaker episode with a bonus admission from me about wanting to hug Clancy Brown and some Red St. Wild dialogue recitation from Jason!
Star Trek Universe
Over on Star Trek Universe Matthew Carroll and I finished up reviewing season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds… Let’s just say we hope for greater things in the future.
Coming Soon…
Artworks inspired by Space Ghost and Batman
Another early poem from 2004
DC on SCREEN #772 - Peacemaker 2x05 - “Back to the Suture” Review
Star Trek Universe #300 - News
Star Trek Universe #301 - Star Trek 2x16 - “A Private Little War” Review
Star Trek Universe #302 - Star Trek 2x17 - “The Gamesters of Triselion” Review