Taking Things Seriously
It is Tuesday morning and Arthur, my internal editor set me a challenge. He said that he doubted I could write anything with a straight face. Not even for a few minutes. I must protest. I believe I can.
So, the firs thing I did was look for a face iron. Because my face is getting old. And is not at all straight…
“Oi! Numpty!”
“Yes Arthur?”
“You know very well what I meant by: ‘with a straight face’.”
“Blimey, tough crowd.”
“Get on with it. So far, you have failed.”
I remember that in March 2009, I began writing a book. Commissioned by an actual publisher. I had a similar conversation with the editor. A human whose name has escaped me. I wrote seriously for a whole month, possibly two. And the book, once finished, launched into all good bookstores and a few secondhand ones because some readers thought my attempt to explain Ruby on Rails was a little off the mark.
Anyway, the point being, I know how to write with breakfast cereal. You dip the flakes in a bottle of ink and write on good quality Basildon Bond paper…
“Andy? Your mind has done that thing again. LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE WRITTEN!”
“Thanks, Arthur, good catch.”
Ah yes, I meant ‘seriously’ not cereal. Ah well, easy mistake to make. But the point is: I wrote seriously to finish a technical book about web development. It was hard. And it made me happy once it was finished and published.
What I’m saying is, I choose to write comedy these days. Doffing my cap to the legends that went before me. Mr Spike Milligan. Mr Douglas Adams. Mr Tom Sharpe. The Monty Python crew. They are all absolute legends to me. And it is their comedic brilliance that inspires me to write. I also like cheese, good quality English cheese.
Regarding the question as to whether or not I can write seriously? Of course I can. When I have to. But I prefer not to. I like a laugh. Life is too short to take everything seriously…
“Some things, now and then, would be good.”
“Ooh, who’s feeling grumpy today?”
“Sod off, and I’m not impressed with this. My editing pen is busy.”
“Harsh.”
Look, as Arthur will probably never agree, but my blog is my linguistic, intellectual playground, my creative capture outlet for the result of my thought experiments and a reason to use my notebook and pen.
The thing with Arthur is, he often arrives in a complex thought and a bad mood.
Right, I believe I have made my point and should now depart this piece of writing with the kind of grandiose sign off befitting a scribe such as myself.
See ya laters.