9 thoughts on “In the meantime with books

  1. Have you weighed in on using AI for art and/or writing? I’d be interested in what you think. If you haven’t given it any thought, don’t worry about it–get back to work!

    1. Yes. I am currently giving AI a lot of thought … thus all of my reading about time, creativity and what it means to be real, authentic and human. I don’t want to categorically say “no” to new things just because they’re new. I prefer the “try at least one bite” dinner table approach to life. For example I gave the “self checkout” automaton stations in grocery stores a lot of thought, reading and writing about them, trying them a number of times before deciding, at least for now, I don’t like them and prefer to wait in line to be checked out by a human being. Similarly with smartphones. I observed them, read about them etc before giving a smartphone a trial…and deciding it’s useful within limits and adopting phone use within my own parameters. Early in the life of personal computers I did digital art quite seriously for years before ultimately deciding that I prefer getting my hands dirty with paints and inks…I’m willing to risk paper cuts while folding paper to make books. Much digital art had/has a mass produced in a factory feel that I began to dislike. Ebooks too have gotten topically study by me…
      Yes, I overthink lots of things 🤣
      So with the caveat that my opinions are in flux so far the AI artwork and writing that I have seen/read has a sameness to all of it, an unpalatable blandness akin to the interstate highway fast food.
      Getting back to work now and I’m very curious about your thoughts re…

      1. From what I’ve been reading about AI for visual art, there are copyright concerns since the bot uses already-existing images created by human artists. If I had to assign a hierarchy, it would be human-generated art, human-generated illustration, and AI-generated images. I am firmly of the belief that art (regardless of mode of creative expression) is the singular domain of humans and it always will be–otherwise it’s not art. Art, including literature, is the expression of one person’s experience of what it means to be human. I could see AI being used to churn out advertising copy and such. I’m thinking about giving it a try for writing book blurbs, which I’m really bad at.

  2. Time and our perception of it is so fascinating. I believe you and I first bonded as blog friends over the shared reading experience of Jay Griffiths’ book that you pictured here again. It’s one I’ve kept on my shelf even after many donations to our local library and tiny free libraries.
    I wish you the best with the deadlines. It sounds like your creative ideas are flowing well and keeping you moving ahead on the commission with gusto! Enjoy!!

    1. Yes!!! I keep and reread Griffith’s book often!!! On another timely topic 😘 I just tried to reply to your blog post and WP didn’t allow it and I don’t at this moment have time to whack my head against that technological brick wall so here’s what I wanted to comment on your wonderful post: “Funny that you mention time… I’m currently reading Time and the Art of Living by Robert Grudin… and I’m also reading short stories by Philip K Dick.
      Anyhoo…don’t we time travel every day? It’s such a challenge to remain in the present moment 😊
      I enjoyed your post today! Thank you!! Happy travels through space and time today!”

      1. Yes, we absolutely time travel everyday, don’t we. I hadn’t quite thought of it like that. And our ability to visit the past in memories or project what the future might look like is remarkable. Many of us have trouble living in the present moment. Good comments. I’m sorry you were unable to enter it into the discussion on my post.
        Enjoy the books and stories, Sue!!

Thank you for reading and sharing encouragements!