Like many of my posts over the years they are often inspired by reader comments, this one is no different, prompted by a comment from , the following substacker, who I thank for the insight :
This fellow Substacker has directly noted that my writing feels LLM scripted, which it has certainly come to be. Conducting deep research means working with all kinds of different characters and wild ideas.
My writing has come to heavily intersect with that of AI agents and uses a partnership between myself and several LLM’s to arrive at otherwise unobtainable conclusions.
By combining my own creative direction and independent ideas with the work of AI agents my work takes on dimensions which are otherwise impossible.
I learned this craft from a very unexpected crew of writers who shaped my development growing up, influences which are celebrated across my websites and manuscripts.
My readers are more than familiar with my indebtedness to the work of such heavy hitter powerhouses such as the blend of classical writers which, combined with the 20th century literary powerhouses: Joyce, Pynchon, Brautigan, Snyder, Kerouac, and of course Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, and fellow terrorists such as Eric Hoffer.
One I have left out until now is the work of one Joan Didion, major 20th century literary figure who gave the instructions to my upcoming generation of writers: PLAY IT AS IT LAYS.
In short, what this means is I have absorbed a method of thinking and writing which uses the material I have available in my time and place.
I deliberately move into territory where others will not go. I descend from a long family history of map makers and explorers, and though I had no ancestors in the Donner Party, like Didion, I owe her in many other respects.
As I write this a painting of Dr. Hunter S.Thompson glares down over my shoulder.
I am being held to a high standard, one I must either attempt to live up to, or must crawl under a rock somewhere for a long nap.
I am quite sure that in measuring my work against these standards that I will fail - and fail quite spectacularly.
But then my motto is learn to fail much better with each repetitive failure, until after a while no one can ignore the spectacular nature of these failures.
Here we enter into what the generation ushered in by Pynchon’s “A Screaming Comes From Across the Sky”, and by Joan Didion’s “Play It As It Lays” is trapped into writing about.
Because only it is only inside the trap, where the Master Keys which the Rounder in the Iron Mask is handing out, are to be found.
