(Note: Chapter 3 of Basket of Reeds is now in the Book section of the web)
On the answer to Claudia's question, I realized that I did not answer the specifics. Typical of a word machine like myself. OK - I've written 8 books - one a rewrite of my PhD thesis (which I will probably never publish - just couldn't get it right), Dream Weaver, and 6 novels, the last of which is waiting for a second draft. On most of them, I felt a "drag" at times, when the energy wasn't there, particularly the last one - the first two thirds of that one were almost torture. But then something always kicks in. In effect, I would say that the novelty of completing books has worn off for me, but not the thrill and inspiration that comes, sooner or later, although it is not always present.
Another thought has occurred to me: while reading all these books about enlightenment and such, the more-modern authors often comment on the waste land that is Western society as far as spiritual insight is concerned. I will not deal with this idea personally, but with the overall topic: is the West, and the world culture that has sprung from it, really all that dead to the deeper things?
Having talked about such things with many people, I would have to say "no." I do agree with the commentators that public culture has become strictly materialistic - that is, "TV" or "News" culture, with its mix of advertisers and politicians and celebrities - but not the real culture. Here, regular people, in intimate circumstances of family or church or meditation group or what have you, are just as awed and inspired as anywhere. Not to bring it up too much, but in Dream Weaver, that was the message - that all across America people are searching. Our only trouble, if you want to call it trouble, is that we, and the West at large, has no official dogma. Many possibilities float about. Public culture, then, will not permit itself to express religious belief for fear of alienating those of a different stripe; and much of it IS about commerce (and many of the personalities ARE smuggley atheistic, but they by no means represent the average schmoe). But that is public culture. Take ten people in a crowd in, of all places, New York City, and I would bet that 9 of them have some pretty unworldly views on reality. They might not share them with an interviewer, but they would with a stranger sitting next to him in a bar, or a hitchhiker who will never be seen again.
Yes, no atheists in foxholes - and that is exactly where we are all heading in one way or another, and we know it. Even the smug among us.
On the answer to Claudia's question, I realized that I did not answer the specifics. Typical of a word machine like myself. OK - I've written 8 books - one a rewrite of my PhD thesis (which I will probably never publish - just couldn't get it right), Dream Weaver, and 6 novels, the last of which is waiting for a second draft. On most of them, I felt a "drag" at times, when the energy wasn't there, particularly the last one - the first two thirds of that one were almost torture. But then something always kicks in. In effect, I would say that the novelty of completing books has worn off for me, but not the thrill and inspiration that comes, sooner or later, although it is not always present.
Another thought has occurred to me: while reading all these books about enlightenment and such, the more-modern authors often comment on the waste land that is Western society as far as spiritual insight is concerned. I will not deal with this idea personally, but with the overall topic: is the West, and the world culture that has sprung from it, really all that dead to the deeper things?
Having talked about such things with many people, I would have to say "no." I do agree with the commentators that public culture has become strictly materialistic - that is, "TV" or "News" culture, with its mix of advertisers and politicians and celebrities - but not the real culture. Here, regular people, in intimate circumstances of family or church or meditation group or what have you, are just as awed and inspired as anywhere. Not to bring it up too much, but in Dream Weaver, that was the message - that all across America people are searching. Our only trouble, if you want to call it trouble, is that we, and the West at large, has no official dogma. Many possibilities float about. Public culture, then, will not permit itself to express religious belief for fear of alienating those of a different stripe; and much of it IS about commerce (and many of the personalities ARE smuggley atheistic, but they by no means represent the average schmoe). But that is public culture. Take ten people in a crowd in, of all places, New York City, and I would bet that 9 of them have some pretty unworldly views on reality. They might not share them with an interviewer, but they would with a stranger sitting next to him in a bar, or a hitchhiker who will never be seen again.
Yes, no atheists in foxholes - and that is exactly where we are all heading in one way or another, and we know it. Even the smug among us.
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