A Writer Writes, Always

musings on writer's block & AI slop

I’ve been wrestling over the last few weeks on a new entry. The purpose of this page is simply to get me writing, even when I don’t feel like it. I’m reminded of a line from the 1987 film, Throw Momma From the Train, where Billy Crystal’s character exclaims to his adult writing class, “A writer writes, always.”

It rolls around in my head often, especially when I know that it would be more productive to write down some of my thoughts instead of festering and doomscrolling. It’s also very tough to get my thoughts together while they’re jammed in my head, because it’s a little too busy up there.

If you haven’t seen Throw Momma From the Train, please stop reading this and go watch it. It’s a riff on Strangers on a Train, directed and starring Danny Devito, along with the aforementioned Crystal and Anne Ramsey of Goonies fame. Everyone is at the top of their game in this dark comedy about resentment, murder plots and writer’s block.

Sometimes I don’t feel like I have writer’s block, but really just the lack of desire to sit down and actually put pen to paper. So as I sit at my dad’s house in my hometown of Wilmington, NC while he watches AI Bob Dylan videos, the mantra of “a writer writes, always,” repeats in my mind. If I had to see this video, so do you.

And this isn’t the only AI video I witnessed my dad watch. I would say, “hey dad this is AI,” and he would say, “is it?” but make no seeming effort to switch over to another video. I’m halfway convinced it’s a bit, but I also think boomers just really don’t care. One Youtube commenter states, “I know the story is maybe a fake, but the message is a good one, it reminds all of us, don't walk around the streets with closed eyes and ears, everybody has the chance to do something good and helpful - that's the message to me and I understood it in the right way.”

Read this article from GQ: Why Boomers Are All in in AI Slop

The parable itself rings true so it doesn’t matter if there is truth to the story itself.

This feels very fitting for the given moment we’re living in. it doesn’t matter the way we’re doing it, it only matters the outcome. Somehow I’m jumping from Billy Crystal to politics, but bear with me for a moment, as I struggle to get to a point in an entry I forced myself to write.

Late Thursday night or early Friday morning, Donald Trump posted a video about conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election, which jumped to Michelle and Barack Obama as monkeys while the song, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” plays. Tim Scott, a MAGA supporter and U.S. Senator said, “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”

At the time of writing, there has been no apology from the president and the White House has said it’s an outrage to think it is racist.

Update: it’s been blamed on a staffer.

If this were anyone else’s presidency it would be met with calls to resign, but we’re talking about Donald Trump here. On top of all of this, there’s mountains of documents showing Trump associations with convicted sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein. This all starts to feel like Air Bud. “Hey a dog can’t play basketball!” Well buddy, he is playing basketball and what’re you gonna do about it?

I remember a friend telling me a story about going out with someone who was rich and they parked in a no parking zone. My friend pointed out that you can’t park there but the guy looked at the possible $200 ticket as the cost of doing business. There’s so many things we assume we can’t do, which changes based on how much money you have. Outside of the money aspect, I think about how if you speed too much you might lose your license and then if you get your license revoked, you can still drive if you just don’t have any scruples about the legality of your driving. Add in money, it’s all just a possible suggestion.

We live in a society, as they say.

In the same way, I feel about the lack of justice for Trump and his alleged pedophile friends, I feel the same kind of hopelessness for AI. People watch those videos not caring about the fact that it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, but does the end message cater to my world view?

Boomers watching AI and still supporting Trump are all the same. It’s just slop. If ICE rounds up the whole neighborhood, who cares, it’s the end result that truly matters. They didn’t want “illegals” there, so we just squint our eyes just right to see what we want to see.

I asked a family member recently, “hey if they figure out that Trump is definitely a pedophile in these files, do you think they should remove him from office? I was then met with a “why does it matter?” To them, he’s doing what they elected him to do, so the details don’t matter. More slop.

There’s a hopelessness of all this. We can’t control our destiny, so who cares about the details? Maybe billionaires will fuck as all, but currently my billionaire is doing what I asked for.

I saw someone unironically post that Barack Obama deported more people than Donald Trump without all of the violence. I did a double-take refusing to believe that the lib-slop wasn’t just ragebait. This isn’t a good thing to look back on fondly. I saw another video telling us that George W. Bush wasn’t in the Epstein files. These aren’t the wins you think they are?

I have another friend whose dad shares more than fifty posts and articles a day on his Facebook page. My friend will point out to his dad that most of them are false information, but his dad will say something to the effect of it not mattering because the context is all that matters. It affirms his own belief.

You’ve all seen the AI pics of beautiful women and comments from older folks saying “wow, you’re beautiful,” to someone with three arms and no logical torso. It doesn’t matter, it’s the idea that counts. Don’t get me going on Shrimp Jesus.

I believe we need to truly care about what’s in the Epstein Files and what we’re letting our government try and gaslight us into believing in the same way as not accepting AI as a reality that we’re going to have to succumb to. I can also recognize that I’m tired and I don’t feel like justice will be served to billionaire pedophiles.

“A writer writes always,” I whisper, as drool runs down my chin while new AI episodes of Beverly Hillbillies fill my dad’s living room.