An artist who presents the schema of their story along with the superstructure is lionised.

Why?

The critic is flattered to be made privy to the plan as well as the spin.

Given the opportunity to assess intention as well as execution.

The Show Your Working Show was originally published in Suspicions & Superstitions on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We don’t like being branded.
Labelled.
Iconised.
But how often do we support a maker who does more than one thing?
Indulge a polymath?
Patronise a Renaissance person?
And/or subscribe to more than one of a creator’s endeavours?
Even in what is dubbed ‘high art’, we’re encouraged to type.
Pigeonhole.
Ensure its purveyors remain in lane.
So, Beethoven was a miserabilist who scored angst.
Dostoyevsky a religious fanatic who literatured lunatics.
Van Gogh a depressive who painted sunflowers.
None of this is true.
In the sense of being the story entire.
Nevertheless, even intellectuals succumb to these portable pottings.
Academics.
For the sake of accuracy?
Rather, to carry a career.

Marqueing Time was originally published in Suspicions & Superstitions on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The free-will quandary centres on our notions of randomness.
Apparent randomness.
(The jury’s still out on whether the quantum realm hosts the genuine article.)
‘Random’ is a placeholder for insufficient data.
And/or know-how now.
The past is no longer a random affair because completed.
Closed out.
Although historians change their minds as often as premiership football team owners do managers, we have a hope that a set of causal steps might be determined.
Are at least determinable.
This isn’t the case with the unfolding present.
And future.
The sense that events in timespace can’t be contained by our thoughts gives us the impression that they’re up for grabs.
Are random actions that may be altered.
We interpret this as meaning we can influence them.
Aren’t influenced by them.
This feeling imbues us with a sense of agency.
The sensation of free will.

Willing Free was originally published in Suspicions & Superstitions on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We write to be read.
Understood?
It’s enough to be heard.
Less.
Imagine one is being noticed.
The empty page is a pouch for all one’s hopes.
Dreams.
Fears.
Also a couch.

Marsupial was originally published in Suspicions & Superstitions on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Being published is regarded as the pinnacle of literary achievement.
But all it means is that the writer has produced a marketable property.
Like a tube of toothpaste.
Or jar of jam.
Only the salesman -
A creature on commission -
Believes the marketplace is the ultimate arbiter of quality.

Publish And Be Jammed was originally published in Suspicions & Superstitions on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We suffer our familiars.
Suffer from them too.
At their hands.
Tongues.
But every red-faced interaction -
That forces us to flee -
Feeling bested -
Second best -
Inspires us to write.
About the confrontation?
Around it.
Above it.
Sublimation may yield dividends.
The cost?
Transitory mauling.
The potential reward?
Transcendent knowledge.

Transitory Mauling was originally published in Suspicions & Superstitions on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The writer values life as it is.
Living.
Seeks to capture it.
Memorialise it.
Actions -
Reactions -
Emotions -
Every facet of experience.
But cannot help heroising it.
Their place in it.
By means of editing.
Abstracting.
Point-of-viewing.

Point And Trick was originally published in Suspicions & Superstitions on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The sensation of coming across something you haven’t worked on for ages?
Had forgotten you wrote?
Thought?
Felt?
Surprise.
Pleasant?
Often.
On account of the content?
No.
Pride?
That, too.
Due to the quality?
No.
Regarding what, then?
The effort.
Your protesting work ethic?
Probably.
I made this.
Did this.
And doing is good.

Doism Is Youism was originally published in Suspicions & Superstitions on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A post from a contributor who gives face wins more attention than one without.
Not if the subject is politics, surely?
Yes.
Psychology?
Afraid so.
Philosophy?
Yes!
And even if the face is AI-generated.
Not on Medium and Substack?
Yes.
But they’re writers’ forums?
Ostensibly, allegedly.
Is this because — 
However much we believe otherwise — 
Claim otherwise — 
We’re still in thrall to beauty?
Its truth?
Perhaps.
Or that — 
Animals — 
We trust our reading of eyes and mouth above that of words?
Or word?
It’s probably simpler than that.
How so?
We like to think we’re seekers of knowledge — 
Wisdom — 
Enlightenment — 
But what we crave above all else — 
Ultimately — 
Is friendship.

The Face Is A Place Where Nobody Lives, Nevertheless… was originally published in Suspicions & Superstitions on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.