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On changing their mind
Back then I thought I was remaking the world, tearing down the old and erecting something new in its place.
Nick Cave
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29 June
From one piece How have your beliefs evolved? What did you once hold true in your beliefs that you don't hold now? 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
Over time, that fiery intensity ebbed away, and I realised that the past wasn’t something to discard but to respect.
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Their words
There may be nothing new under the sun, but it is our distinctiveness that matters, our specialness.
23 April
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Likedrcmnd.app
Awake! William Blake and the Power of the ImaginationTheir words
At the moment, I’m halfway through Mark Vernon’s illuminating Awake! William Blake and the Power of the Imagination, and I’ve just finished Darcey Steinke’s This Is the Door: Notes from a Body in Pain
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Readrcmnd.app
This Is the Door: Notes from a Body in PainTheir words
I’ve just finished Darcey Steinke’s This Is the Door: Notes from a Body in Pain, a kind of wild theology of the body
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Lovedrcmnd.app
Flash Count DiaryTheir words
(I loved her book on menopause, Flash Count Diary).
+ 5 more
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Likedrcmnd.app
Do Not Go GentleTheir words
I also recently finished Kathleen Stock’s fierce argument against the UK’s proposed assisted dying bill, Do Not Go Gentle, which I read while taking rich, salutary dives into my dear friend Maria Popova’s luminous Traversal.
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Likedrcmnd.app
TraversalTheir words
taking rich, salutary dives into my dear friend Maria Popova’s luminous Traversal.
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Likedrcmnd.app
DishcastTheir words
A few that come to mind – the deeply humane Catholic conservative Andrew Sullivan in conversation with philosopher and atheist John Gray (Dishcast); the ridiculously Christ-literate non-believer Alex O’Connor (Within Reason) speaking to the mighty Iain McGilchrist
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Likedrcmnd.app
Within ReasonTheir words
the ridiculously Christ-literate non-believer Alex O’Connor (Within Reason) speaking to the mighty Iain McGilchrist
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Likedrcmnd.app
Sheldrake/Vernon DialoguesTheir words
an arm wrestle over René Descartes and Blaise Pascal at UnHerd; the beautiful Sheldrake/Vernon Dialogues.
23 January
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korrents.com
Suffering is not an interruption of a good life but the ground the good things grow out of.Their words
Suffering is the essential and nourishing ground from which all the delightful gifts of life emerge.
1 February 2024
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Their words
I suppose I do this by practising compassion rather than empathy – being moved by someone’s suffering and wanting to help, rather than putting myself in their position and feeling their pain. Standing a step away and seeking to assist someone in need, rather than being disabled by their despair, seems to be the way to manage these things.
20 November 2023
From one piece What do I do with these songs? 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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korrents.com
The only thing a maker really controls is telling the good work from the bad; what arrives is not up to them.Their words
Where we do have control is in identifying which is which.
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Their words
But I have come to understand that the feeling of creative control is an illusion, that the songs are predetermined and have their own destiny, that they are not our own.
10 August 2023
From one piece I work in the music industry and there is a lot of excitement around ChatGPT... what's wrong with making things faster and easier? 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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korrents.com
The struggle of making something is not an obstacle in front of the work; it is where the meaning comes from.Their words
It is our striving that becomes the very essence of meaning.
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Their words
ChatGPT is fast-tracking the commodification of the human spirit by mechanising the imagination. It renders our participation in the act of creation as valueless and unnecessary.
16 January 2023
From one piece I asked Chat GPT to write a song in the style of Nick Cave and this is what it produced. What do you think? 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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korrents.com
Making something great is the opposite of resembling what is already recognised as great.Their words
What makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognizable work. Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite.
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korrents.com
Songs come out of suffering, and a system that has endured nothing has nothing to make one from.Their words
Songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer.
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Their words
What ChatGPT is, in this instance, is replication as travesty. ChatGPT may be able to write a speech or an essay or a sermon or an obituary but it cannot create a genuine song.
29 June 2021
From one piece Do you think it is more important to find inspiration or to get to work and write? 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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korrents.com
A maker cannot summon the good line, only be at the desk when it arrives, and the outcome is not theirs to influence.Their words
Pen poised, I sit to attention, in my suit, on the edge of my imagination, prepared for the beautiful line to arrive. Sometimes it does, sometimes it does not — either way I am powerless to influence the outcome.
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Their words
I also have an affinity with artists who treat their craft as a job and are not dependent on the vagaries of inspiration — because I am one of them. Like most people with a job, we just go to work.
31 May 2019
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Their words
With regards to sexual desire and songwriting, creativity and desire have always been inextricably linked for me.
23 January 2019
From one piece Considering human imagination the last piece of wilderness, do you think AI will ever be able to write a good song? 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there
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Their words
What we are actually listening to is human limitation and the audacity to transcend it. Artificial Intelligence, for all its unlimited potential, simply doesn’t have this capacity.
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Their words
A sense of awe is almost exclusively predicated on our limitations as human beings. It is entirely to do with our audacity as humans to reach beyond our potential.
Nothing matches.
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