twenty-two. voice.

[goryteller]

[There's the soft sound of a heater in the background, a pleasant, continuous hum. Katurian's voice is clear but decidedly subdued, a contrast to his typically frantic nature.]

Aristotle once said that most of humankind is swayed by fear rather than reverence, that they refrain from evil not because it's the right thing to do but because they're afraid of punishment. It gets me thinking about religion more than anything.

[Pause. The faint sound of nails tracing wood. Tapping.]

After all, religion builds monsters to keep people in line. Fantastical beings. Or-- not so fantastical. But of course, I never needed them. I never payed attention to all the monsters that people cowered over in groups behind pews. The monsters described on clear blue pamphlets.

I'm a writer. I make my own monsters.

[Pause. Then, softer:]

There are, of course, quite a few people who don't refrain in the first place. I suppose that's what Aristotle meant. Most humankind.

[More tapping. Drumming.]

I suppose-- [Pause.] Well. I suppose that's it for today.

[Click.]

Comments

[sh-consulting.livejournal.com]

I assure you I am the only one of me.

Writers are hardly in short supply. Though not as common in the imPort population, true.

[goryteller]

That's very true. I've barely met any. Fiction writers, that is, I-- I've met more of the other sorts. Nonfiction. Journalists.

I suppose we're less useful, overall, than the detectives.

[sh-consulting.livejournal.com]

If by less useful you mean useless, yes.

[goryteller]

Ha ha ha. I wouldn't go that far.

[sh-consulting.livejournal.com]

When fiction provides any use what-so-ever, then I'll concede the point.

[goryteller]

Fiction provides plenty of use! The great writers have shifted public consciousness, have shaped life itself with their stories and culture. It's the most perfect creation humanity can hope to accomplish. It's the ultimate immortality.

[sh-consulting.livejournal.com]

Like I said. Useless.

Immortality is impossible and immaterial. Men are more deftly manipulated by a thousand other things than they ever have been by literature.

[goryteller]

My life would be nothing like it is right now without fiction. You're shaping lives. Individual lives.

Do you take any pleasure in art?

[sh-consulting.livejournal.com]

Lives that are more easily and more profoundly shaped by a mere blow to the head.

In Art? Generally, no. Though I must excuse music from the equation.

[goryteller]

Music. [A bitter laugh. Pause.] And why is that?

[sh-consulting.livejournal.com]

Music gives structure. Complexity to simplicity.

It's closer to a science, than to an art.

It has use.

[goryteller]

I'd rather be writing than bashing someone over the head any day.

[sh-consulting.livejournal.com]

Fiction or Brutality?

What a refreshingly simplistic worldview.

[goryteller]

I'm using your example, thank you very much.

[Pause.]

What do you do for fun, anyway?

[sh-consulting.livejournal.com]

Because there are only two ways to influence the mind, of course.


I work.

[goryteller]

So do I.

[sh-consulting.livejournal.com]

If you could call that work.

[Just be glad this is before Ghost told him he was fictional.]

[goryteller]

I'm crafting something beautiful. I am breathing life into the inanimate. I am creating voices and worlds that will entertain, that will go on to live longer than I do, that will grow and flourish outside of my own head and that may not matter to you, you may think it's silly or useless but that is all the world to me. It is all the world to me. You--

[A struggle.]

You don't need to agree.

[sh-consulting.livejournal.com]

No. I don't. And I'm sure your endeavors to keep the masses entertained are very satisfying for you.

But immortality it isn't.