As someone who writes, I can tell you I get loads of advice.  Its everywhere.  I can’t pick up anything about writing without drowning in it.  I can’t surf websites on the subject without being inundated with it.

It all seems to come down to this:

- Be brief and concise

- Use Bulleted lists

- Have zippy titles that summarize the piece

- focus on summary data, details are often lost on people

- focus word choices on cookies on the bottom shelf words, big words are gauche


And somewhere along the way my stubborn streak gets in the way.  Somewhere along the way, I decide that the advice serves only to perpetuate our cultural disconnect.

We as a culture need to be made to delve into the details.  We need to read lengthy narratives rich in description and 6 syllable words.  We to look long and hard at narratives that tell the entire story, not just the cases that support our preconceived views.  We need to accept that truth is not simple.  It is not easy.  And truth is never found in summary.

The advice must be thwarted  at every turn.  The people of the world deserve better.  We need more than a thirty second sound bite.  We need to be told everything.  We need to tell everything.  To do anything less is absolutely criminal.  In part because it sells us as a species short, and in part because the world is so much more complicated than the advice accounts for.

The notion that simplicity serves us well, when complexity defines us and our universe is tragically flawed.  The sooner we embrace complexity, the sooner focus on reshaping our writing to tell the whole tale, the better off we will all be.  The soon the advice becomes a cautionary tale that should force us to run seeking more the better off we will all be.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman a gifted and talented actor is no more.  The details as of this writing are sketchy.  The gossip outlets are calling it an apparent overdose.  Some are even reporting lurid details of the manner in which he was found.  I do find our obsession with these details to be troublesome.  The details and our insatiable desire to have them seem to serve only to diminish the fallen.  Seem to be aimed at shattering our image of them.

While he was by far not my favorite actor, he did have amazing skills in the craft and a deft hand for the art that is acting.  He suffered from struggles with his demons as many in the creative camp do.  In the course of his struggling some superlative acting worthy of remembrance resulted. The fact that he eventually succumbed to his struggle should not come as a surprise to us. Anymore than the methods he used to keep his demons at bay should.

What remains of him is the cherished memory I have of sitting in a darkened theater allowing the output of his struggle to wash over me in a flood.  He will not be forgotten.