Tag: culture

08/2/25

Musing. About AI.

Ai can do beautiful things. Granted.

It can create junk as well. Ah, but so can humans, one can say.

True. With the proper inputs, directions, and human perseverance, AI can create something beyond what we can do in a drastically shorter amount of time.

I don’t question that – I am not questioning using technology to further original human creativity or to enhance an already created project, or to provide technological assistance (science, advanced math, …).

But what about those who use AI to create and produce the work from the beginning – leaving AI to take on the whole creative process?

There is a possibility that this can be done without being damaging, with some standards of aesthetics, principles, and ideas held intact. I am sure that it may be possible and perhaps it has been done, effectively, already. But it’s slim.

Think of all the trash books and trash art that are out there – written exclusively by AI, perhaps from a human prompt at most. Works that don’t hold a light to any standard.

These AI creations, the trash books and art, are pushing the books and art, created by human hand & fueled by human emotion and thought, off the shelves and into oblivion.

If we must use AI, (I still wonder about the if and why we must), shouldn’t there be limits and standards?

Shouldn’t quality be a standard?

Imagine trying to assess what 'quality' standards could exist in literature and art in a time like ours, when people are beginning to lose the ability to communicate effectively and when the appreciation of the arts is waning. 
Who can judge quality today - what constitutes a good read or great art, when there are no contemporary universal 'standards' to go by in a world that demands to be entertained audio-visually with the least effort and consumes 'brainless' entertainment passively? So, books and art in that kind of world? Difficult indeed.

I am not talking about liking a style or personally relating to a genre. I am not talking about ‘tastes’ and preferences as a means to determine quality standards.
I am talking about being able to distinguish a book or a piece of art for its ability to relay a message, provoke thought, and stir emotion, regardless of what that might be. That should be a standard.

sosanni

This isn’t about personal preference or experience – it is about recognizing the fact that being able to use a pen or brush to effectively express an idea, regardless of whether or not others agree with the idea, is a standard of quality.

Does the book or artwork (story, poem or sculpture – painting, prose or music) provoke thoughts or feelings?

So many young people today have not read a book yet that ‘moved’ them – that made them think – that made them feel.

And AI is creating more and more of these cold, sterile products masked as art and literature.

Ugh. Everything seems to be AI today. Everything. I have grown accustomed to using AI, even using an image here and there when I need to find something ‘contemporary’. I use it and cringe.

But to sacrifice art and beauty for convenience?

Humans, exclusively, bear the innate, glorious, and unique creative ability to construct works fueled by emotion, driven by instinct, and colored by experience.

And to sacrifice this for mass-produced mechanical mimicry?

MImicry devoid of emotion, moral codes, and principles, without instinct, experience, or memories.

How can this empty mimicry pass for art or literature?

What about simple grammar checks and scans for errors (syntax and the like)? Isn’t that AI? It flies into our faces when we write the simplest email, eager to put the words into our mouths.

There is no right or wrong here – there is no way to draw lines and justify that AI is good for this and bad for that.

One truth is coming out of all this, and that is AI is here to stay.

When we ‘create’ as humans, investing our memories, emotions, and cultural nuance in the process, regardless of it being art, literature or music, AI is there pushing these works aside before they can be seen.

Because in minutes, they can provide a human creative with their version, a substitute for something that may take a person a year to create.

Their version? Constructed by

  • learned patterns of language
  • learned descriptors of emotional response
  • learned patterns of dialogue
  • plots without nuance
  • without depth
  • without moral code
  • without any respect for what is sacred to a human.

Because belief, morality, principles, decency, nuance, depth, and the sacred are concepts that these ‘machines’ can recognize in code but will never feel or understand.

And so here we are. The last of the writers and readers.

The ones that can endure paragraphs at a time.

A series of paragraphs to the younger generations is tl;dr.

The younger generations? Raised in the digital age.

The digital age. The age of ‘progress and promise’.

Characterized by

  • shortened attention spans.
  • Diminished vocabulary.
  • Little or no exposure to cultural heritage in the arts.
  • Lack of critical thinking skills.

My take?…

I think we all need to read more, write more, share more, express more, feel more, think more, muse more, rant more…Just be more.

Let’s all do more. Maybe we can hold on to whatever culture is left untouched by technology a bit longer before it fades into oblivion.

08/2/25

A perusal. A find. And the afterthoughts

I tend to peruse…to wander and unexpectedly discover something new to me online while out scavenging for “interesting and fascinating”.

So I was on Pinterest yesterday, early in the day, and came across this pin.

This pin was interesting and I wanted to see more of what Utropiia pinned.

Fascinating boards depicting a fascinating project.

I went to the site Utropiia to learn and see more. Truly a job well done.

It was truly engaging. The concept of the city that never was. The captured essence of life in another dimension – all very creatively envisioned and visually well done.

Ah. But here comes my afterthought that pestered me all day. The thought that made me wonder about it all. It wasn’t about Utropiia.

I began to wonder about AI.

08/2/25

A Fairy Tale Start and Winds of Thoughts.

A perfect day to spend writing. Seated next to the open window, a cool breeze is bringing relief from a scorching heat wave. Fresh coffee and a bit of a fairy tale as I set off on today’s creative journey, working on my sites, my book, and of course, collecting all musings, ideas, thoughts and finds gathered along the way and recording them all here.

This image is from a fairy tale written by the Comtesse de Segur in the late 18th century. It is a truly enchanting tale, and I love it because of the way it portrays the goodness and purity of people in a dark world. This image shows the Princess Blondine with the Bonne Biche – from the tale Blondine.

What better way to start my day than an image from a fairy tale, where the magical is real and the real is magical?

And Now. Back to Business

The Weather Report:

Vibrant blue umbrella rests on wet, moss-covered stone steps, reflecting rainy weather.

The winds of thoughts have picked up a bit from all directions, blowing in since yesterday, creating some approaching fronts. The forecast is for scattered entries drizzling and pouring onto these pages here throughout today – in the form of journalesque musings, rants, and the recording of finds from my perusals. Umbrella advised.

07/27/25

The Welcome Blurb.

I am truly happy that you stopped by.

So, welcome to my journal, Where The Juicy Thoughts Go.

Yes. It’s a journal. No, it’s not a ‘blog’/’site’ in the traditional sense. Sorry to disappoint.

Now that I look at the title, I don’t think that ‘juicy’ is the right word -what with censorship, propriety, decorum and all preventing juicy from being a ‘thing’ here. (Ah, the privileges of writing one’s thoughts in a truly free world – to be scandalous and juicy whenever the urge hits the keyboard.)

This isn’t a ‘gossip’ -‘ tell all’ site, which scoops dirt. That is probably considered ‘juicy’ by many readers today – from the Lady Whistledown reports in Bridgerton to the urinal yellow tabloidish gossip in print or online in today’s world.

No…my journal isn’t there…I suppose my entries would be juicy in a creative way? If you had the chance to see the google history of a writer, the things we actually look up while working on a project (and out of our endless curiosity), you would know what I mean.

If our search history were a criterion for establishing one’s sanity, writers of fiction (at least the edgy ones out there) would be in trouble. But that’s what happens when you create strange characters and bewildering worlds.

But “Where The Juicy Thoughts Go?! That title just rolled off my pen. So I am using it…there must be a reason for it to roll off the pen (keyboard, actually). Sounds superstitious? Nah…but I DON’T change titles once they are spewed.

Now, that I look at it, as a title, it has a Sendak ring to it, no? Remember, Where The Wild Things Are, by Sendak…(Or are you too young for that?) It was an early 60’s childhood book that was banned for the longest time because it was too dark and frightening (?)…Banned books? That’s another journal entry rant, believe me.

So, this is my online writer’s journal, purpose-built to house what I need to write. People call these types of journals a behind-the-scenes look at a creative at work. But for me, it is a brain dump venue of sorts for all thoughts that ran through the mind gears during the creative process, and then some.

“Writers’ journals“. Sounds fatally boring, doesn’t it?

Well, some writers are boring – as in ‘some people are boring’. Some aren’t – as in ‘Some writers are fun to be with, even when they aren’t drunk.’

The dullness factor of a writer and their journal depends upon what they write about, not their diet and drinking habits or how far they have gone in therapy. I believe the personality of writers determines what they write – and that in turn takes us to the fact that writers are then influenced by what they write about. That can be quite the cycle. The more ‘out there’ their writing is, it goes without saying that the more liberated they are from the norm.

Of course, the dullness marker of a writer also depends upon their ‘state’, which is also influenced by what they write about. Are they in a state of creative fury, or are they busy bees, beating the keyboard with much of the same, day in, day out…churning out brain wave-free junk food reads (which are in high demand, btw) or producing much needed books on grammar/syntax/theory of writing/creativity manuals.

Nothing wrong with any of those. Although I could never wrap my mind about learning to write creatively. That is like learning to eat with an appetite. Learning to have sex with desire. It’s not learned. It comes from within. But one can still write, eat or know someone intimately with or without the drive. Not everything can be in a plug and go shtick.

  • There is a need for the ‘crazy’ creative writer, always working on something, for whom publishing is not the end goal. It’s all about the ‘project’ for them…This is a writer who is whirling in their world of creativity and basks in the state of unfinished projects. The world needs these writers. They are the dreamers that society desperately needs. They are the misfits, the odd ones, the ones that can deliver the creative flair, because they live it. It’s what they know.
  • There is a need for the ‘junk read’ book mill writer. People aren’t reading properly (as in ‘not eating’ properly, ‘not communicating’ properly, ‘not whatever-ing’ properly) – so if devouring a junk read means ‘reading’…than junk read it must be. Junk reads are better than no reads. But minds will be wasting away within a few generations if we keep on supporting this intellect free spoon fed diet that seems to be the trend. (Don’t get me started on that.)

So. I call myself a writer? With these run-on sentences sprinkled with fragments? Erratic capitalizations, overuse of the …(ellipsis), and incohesive content?

YES. I do that. I ramble, and throw grammar rules to the wind.

Welcome to my journal, where I write off the cuff, on the fly, very ‘stream of consciousness’ (Yep, there is a name for it – ‘they’ have to label everything in control freak society) (Don’t get me started on that either.)

I have accumulated five decades of writing experience, including quite a few completed books and TOMES of unfinished works…but who’s counting – it makes one sound ‘old’. And old is a state of mind/way of thinking that it isn’t mine.

I have stopped writing books (fantasy/quasi-transgressive/magical realism) with the intent to publish. Don’t get me started on ‘publishing’…that’s a rant for a rainy day – anyway. I still write, but for the creative thrill.

I am also interested in creating some sort of activist project regarding cultural awareness. That is my latest peeve, interest, project, and pursuit. I feel that cultural awareness is waning. (That is a polite way of expressing it.)

NO, don’t click away, lol…I am not doing that here, in my personal journal. 🤣

I have started two cultural journals, erratica.ink and thefoodist.eu with this issue in mind – to bring some forgotten or unknown cultural details to the surface – just to provide an opportunity for a reader to scroll some minimalistic posts with a cultural lens. Minimalistic. Yes.

But culture is a very ‘niche’ thing, with a small group of the online population interested – yet I was pleasantly surprised with the turnout at both sites! I am not interested in putting out the burgeoning sites, with the like buttons and the list of paid readers. To me, it’s about small, select, the culture, the topic, the journey.

Considering the fact that a very small percentage of the general blog audience out there is interested in culture – It then goes without saying that they would also stay away from a journal/site like this, because people today prefer not to read. This post? It is considered a ‘long read’ today.

I am too tl;dr for most, darlings…🏆

I know that the long read is dead. But I write anyway.

I just realized that Realling Is The New Reading.

Realling? It is a term I coined just now while writing.

Realling Is The New Reading.

Realling comes from the words Reading + Scrolling.
Realling means “to take in whatever captions and images one briefly picks up while scrolling and to mistakenly believe this to be reading”.

Anyway. Enough…

Tempus fugit… so little time, so many rants queued.

I found some amazing things yesterday online that I must include in this journal. No time today….definitely tomorrow. But I never plan. There is also a rant or two dancing about in my mind today that must be dumped…and I have a writer’s issue or two I need to keyboard as well…and that’s just for starters. And the characters? I DIDNT EVEN MENTION THAT ISSUE YET!

I will get around to it all!

But for now, I’m signing off, because it still is the real world, and there is work to do….

Sosanni

PS Are you guilty of ‘realling’ too? (Be honest.)😉