How do I become more well read and junk

bounce

@JohnnyGoodyear
A woman I wouldn’t look twice at in the street suddenly becomes a possessor of forbidden knowledge in the library.

What’s also cool is you can access: books, audiobooks, magazines from library catalogues via an ipad app, while in the sky for free. What a time to be alive.

ALB

Martin Amis’ London Fields is a good read. Literate and strangely moving.

JangoMango

Read Mein Kampf by A.Hitler. it will prepare you for internet music forums ;-)

Redo1

@supadom said:

@Redo1 said:
How much knowledge is required for ultimate creativity?

Define ultimate creativity

Totally free and independent? Original. With so many influences how does one avoid derivatives

[Deleted User]

Being well read helps, but question everything you learn from the world. Take each thing and see if you can rewrite it to mean something else. Do this many times with everything learnt and even with what people say. Eventually you will start to see other ways of accomplishing everything and your mind will expand to opportunities.

Redo1

@Fruitbat1919 said:
Being well read helps, but question everything you learn from the world. Take each thing and see if you can rewrite it to mean something else. Do this many times with everything learnt and even with what people say. Eventually you will start to see other ways of accomplishing everything and your mind will expand to opportunities.

Yeah good start

[Deleted User]

@Blipsford_Baubie said:

@InfoCheck said:

@Blipsford_Baubie said:

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

@Blipsford_Baubie said:
I've read absolutely nothing. Seriously.

Fair enough. Give us some insight though. Who do you admire? What films do you like? What country would you like to go to? What is your favorite century? What culture (other than your own) interests you?

I admire Reggie Watts. Aside from his musical chops, I'm drawn to the stand up comics' perspective. But Reggie Watts sometimes goes on these esoterically philosophical rants that have this silly ending, as if to say "I'm intelligent, but I don't take myself seriously".

As for films, i love "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". "The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus". "Bar Fly". "Permanent Midnight ". "Fight Club." "Falling Down".

I would like to visit France. I like the 20th century.

Culture not of my own? European.

Many of these films you’ve mentioned were novels adapted for film.

Learning to play either an instrument or to write well is a skill that requires a willingness and an ability to practice those skills in order to develop them to the point people besides your friends or family will say they enjoy them. Depending on the family dynamics, they might not be the best audience either. There aren’t any short cuts but many ways to waste your time which consist of trying to learn in a half hearted way so you end up with low quality compositions.

If you don’t read and have had little desire to do so, in my opinion, until you read more you will not acquire enough insight into how writing works to develop anything worth reading.

If poetry is a specific interest, buy a poetry anthology which is a compilation of contemporary poets. This will be a way of reading a variety of styles which can be a process for helping you to develop your own approaches and ideas. It’s perfectly reasonable to skim or skip over poems/poets which you don’t relate to.

Alternatively you could start writing and ask people who aren’t just your friends to provide you with some feedback on your writing.

Why are you asking people on a mobile music forum for advice about writing? I wouldn’t go to a writers forum, tell them I don’t really listen to any music, and then ask them for advice about which instruments I should play.

Perhaps you’d be better off going to a comedy club where they have an open mic night and start developing your material?

Totally agree about the family and friends thing. Sounds like good advice over all. The reason i chose this music forum is cause I've been on here a few years, and I like the way people here generally express themselves. All the way from some of the song writing to the argumentative and persuasive rhetoric around here, and even a troll or two, or three. Can't tell really, they might all be the same one. And as @BlueGreenSpiral sensed, I'm looking to join more of these types of conversations. Not looking to write a novel. But I'd be quite proud in writing some good "bad" poetry in song format. I don't particularly like the sound of rockabilly much, but i like the story telling. But regarding the bad poetry, i like Jim Morrison's poetry for example, despite the fact that it's been critisized as bad or wrong? Perhaps i shouldn't even be comparing poetry to lyrical writing? Some of the established pop tunes from over the years will contain a line of grammatically incorrect stuff but the rhythm allows it to just roll off the tongue and couldn't sound better any other way.

And the reason I chose a music form in general was very intentional. I don't want opinions to come close from the academic and purist circle. I like the college drop outs and street performer type. But i say all this understanding that it's good to know the rules before you break them.

Thank you for explaining where you’re coming from. I must disqualify myself from giving you suggestions on this topic I’ve spent vast amounts of time in an academic environment although I do not discount writers from a non-academic background as frequently academics can be disconnected from the sensibilities of the general public. I do like Jim Morrison and his poetry. I have spent quite a lot of time during the last ten years writing poetry and interacting with poets from all sorts of backgrounds and perspectives. Unfortunately people can be very narrow minded about what constitutes good or bad poetry.

I do think reading a variety of poetry with the goal in mind of seeing which if any of it might be helpful to your own goals. As an artist, I would encourage you to be open to other people’s approaches yet ultimately to always remember it’s your work and take whatever they say with a grain of salt especially if they’re insisting too strongly on doing it the way they are when it makes no sense to you.

knewspeak

Whatever you chose try various perspectives, immerse yourself fully, hold nothing back, then take a break, ponder the simplest of things, maybe you'll see the splendour.

JohnnyGoodyear

@ALB said:
Martin Amis’ London Fields is a good read. Literate and strangely moving.

Amis Jr. is a funny bugger, but I raced through London Fields when it first came out. Must have been 1990. I remember reading it as the jet took off for New York and looking down over my home town for what would be the last time for a long time....Probably time for a revisit (book not town). Have to wonder if it's dated at all...

knewspeak

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

@ALB said:
Martin Amis’ London Fields is a good read. Literate and strangely moving.

Amis Jr. is a funny bugger, but I raced through London Fields when it first came out. Must have been 1990. I remember reading it as the jet took off for New York and looking down over my home town for what would be the last time for a long time....Probably time for a revisit (book not town). Have to wonder if it's dated at all...

Or oneself

dabusgo

Charles Bukowski

JeffChasteen

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

@ALB said:
Martin Amis’ London Fields is a good read. Literate and strangely moving.

Amis Jr. is a funny bugger, but I raced through London Fields when it first came out. Must have been 1990. I remember reading it as the jet took off for New York and looking down over my home town for what would be the last time for a long time....Probably time for a revisit (book not town). Have to wonder if it's dated at all...

My introduction to Jr was Money, and I loved it. When Wolfe later came out with Bonfire of the Vanities, I just wondered why the latter even bothered with the whole thing.

ALB

@JeffChasteen said:

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

@ALB said:
Martin Amis’ London Fields is a good read. Literate and strangely moving.

Amis Jr. is a funny bugger, but I raced through London Fields when it first came out. Must have been 1990. I remember reading it as the jet took off for New York and looking down over my home town for what would be the last time for a long time....Probably time for a revisit (book not town). Have to wonder if it's dated at all...

My introduction to Jr was Money, and I loved it. When Wolfe later came out with Bonfire of the Vanities, I just wondered why the latter even bothered with the whole thing.

@JohnnyGoodyear and @JeffChasteen - I read Money after London Fields. Out of chrono order, binging on his novels one after the other some time in the 90’s (roughly going from newest to oldest). I suspect that they may have seemed dated 10 years ago, but perhaps seem more relevant now. Hard to say - the sociopolitical mores of today are so cartoonish that effective comment seems pretty daunting. That said, good writing is good writing, and I could still enjoy his corpus for that alone. I was lucky enough to meet him at a book signing in San Francisco. I was too intimidated to say much, though he was quite affable. I just thanked him for writing. I’ll add that the question and answer period after he read a passage from The Information (his latest at the time) was agonizing. It seemed as though everyone who asked a question was completely unfamiliar with his work.

JohnnyGoodyear

@ALB said:

@JeffChasteen said:

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

@ALB said:
Martin Amis’ London Fields is a good read. Literate and strangely moving.

Amis Jr. is a funny bugger, but I raced through London Fields when it first came out. Must have been 1990. I remember reading it as the jet took off for New York and looking down over my home town for what would be the last time for a long time....Probably time for a revisit (book not town). Have to wonder if it's dated at all...

My introduction to Jr was Money, and I loved it. When Wolfe later came out with Bonfire of the Vanities, I just wondered why the latter even bothered with the whole thing.

@JohnnyGoodyear and @JeffChasteen - I read Money after London Fields. Out of chrono order, binging on his novels one after the other some time in the 90’s (roughly going from newest to oldest). I suspect that they may have seemed dated 10 years ago, but perhaps seem more relevant now. Hard to say - the sociopolitical mores of today are so cartoonish that effective comment seems pretty daunting. That said, good writing is good writing, and I could still enjoy his corpus for that alone. I was lucky enough to meet him at a book signing in San Francisco. I was too intimidated to say much, though he was quite affable. I just thanked him for writing. I’ll add that the question and answer period after he read a passage from The Information (his latest at the time) was agonizing. It seemed as though everyone who asked a question was completely unfamiliar with his work.

Gentlemen, I sense we need to repair to The Snug for a long chatter on these matters. Alternately you're both very welcome to drop by and I will willingly make tea.

I think you may be right about the circular trajectory of the Amis book, given the four color process nature of the world currently. I shall revisit. Such an interesting and intersected Three, Amis, Barnes and McEwan. Separate but sealed by time (and much raked over circumstance). It's no competition, but overall I feel more understood by Barnes. His slight memoir Nothing to Be Frightened Of was/is superb. For mortal reasons it will forever be bookended (for me) by Dannie Abse's writing about the death of his wife (and thereafter), which in itself is worth the price of many tickets etc. So many books, so long dead....

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

ALB

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

@ALB said:

@JeffChasteen said:

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

@ALB said:
Martin Amis’ London Fields is a good read. Literate and strangely moving.

Amis Jr. is a funny bugger, but I raced through London Fields when it first came out. Must have been 1990. I remember reading it as the jet took off for New York and looking down over my home town for what would be the last time for a long time....Probably time for a revisit (book not town). Have to wonder if it's dated at all...

My introduction to Jr was Money, and I loved it. When Wolfe later came out with Bonfire of the Vanities, I just wondered why the latter even bothered with the whole thing.

@JohnnyGoodyear and @JeffChasteen - I read Money after London Fields. Out of chrono order, binging on his novels one after the other some time in the 90’s (roughly going from newest to oldest). I suspect that they may have seemed dated 10 years ago, but perhaps seem more relevant now. Hard to say - the sociopolitical mores of today are so cartoonish that effective comment seems pretty daunting. That said, good writing is good writing, and I could still enjoy his corpus for that alone. I was lucky enough to meet him at a book signing in San Francisco. I was too intimidated to say much, though he was quite affable. I just thanked him for writing. I’ll add that the question and answer period after he read a passage from The Information (his latest at the time) was agonizing. It seemed as though everyone who asked a question was completely unfamiliar with his work.

Gentlemen, I sense we need to repair to The Snug for a long chatter on these matters. Alternately you're both very welcome to drop by and I will willingly make tea.

I think you may be right about the circular trajectory of the Amis book, given the four color process nature of the world currently. I shall revisit. Such an interesting and intersected Three, Amis, Barnes and McEwan. Separate but sealed by time (and much raked over circumstance). It's no competition, but overall I feel more understood by Barnes. His slight memoir Nothing to Be Frightened Of was/is superb. For mortal reasons it will forever be bookended (for me) by Dannie Abse's writing about the death of his wife (and thereafter), which in itself is worth the price of many tickets etc. So many books, so long dead....

Would love to visit.

Will

Diane Ackerman's "A Natural History of the Senses" is part nerdy Radio Lab style investigation, part prose. Really interesting stuff, really incredible writing.

Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" is probably still my favorite book.

More modern, Colson Whitehead's "The Underground Railroad" is just dripping with beautiful ways to express most everything.

If you like stand up, watch a lot of stand up! There's so much available on YouTube and if you have a record player, old comedy records are dirt cheap at thrift stores. Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, George Carlin, Richard Pryor... All Reggie Watts precursors.

animal

I am all for Robert Anton Wilson. Bridges the gap between fiction and nonfiction. Similar to fightclub, that‘s why I mention him. I do prefer reading to listening, or being-read-to, it sets different things in motion, within you...

BlueGreenSpiral

I find the opposite @animal
An audiobook will have me totally immersed in that world once the narrator and book are high quality.

Good call on Robert Anton Wilson

animal

Haha, that‘s just what I said: different things being set in motion..., it‘s the individual‘s choice, of course.
Cheers, t

BlueGreenSpiral

The immersion I mentioned only happens fully when I'm laying horizontal with my eyes closed @animal

Since this has become the official book thread I can highly recommend "Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music" by Dennis deSantis.
A good thing to have around during creative blocks!

BradleyFS

@BlueGreenSpiral said:
Since this has become the official book thread I can highly recommend "Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music" by Dennis deSantis.
A good thing to have around during creative blocks!

I keep hearing about this book. I'm not much of an electronic musician - more of a band/guitarist/songwriter kinda guy - so I'm not sure how useful it would be for me, but I might get it anyway. There's a few chapters free on Ableton's site as well - https://makingmusic.ableton.com

BlueGreenSpiral

@BradleyFS said:

@BlueGreenSpiral said:
Since this has become the official book thread I can highly recommend "Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music" by Dennis deSantis.
A good thing to have around during creative blocks!

I keep hearing about this book. I'm not much of an electronic musician - more of a band/guitarist/songwriter kinda guy - so I'm not sure how useful it would be for me, but I might get it anyway. There's a few chapters free on Ableton's site as well - https://makingmusic.ableton.com

I can safely say it would be very useful to any musicians. The iBooks version is great value

RUST( i )K

@Blipsford_Baubie said:
I don't know what kind of material or who to start with. I still wanna have time for music. And i don't have much time. My goal is to eventually be able to express my observations of the world and people around me more poetically.

Make horrible decisions.

Decimate your life.

Ruin it. Literally.

Rebuild it.

When you complete this journey, you will be at he place you desire.

The most enlighten people I have met in my life have been a homeless person and person who didn't even speak my own language.

Just my opinion.