Be true to yourself that you may be true to your work.
Be true to your work that you may be true to yourself.
~ Samuel R. Delany
In the spirit of asking worthy questions—I thought I’d approach the suggestion (via @ZacharyFeder, touching an idea that had been floating around, just waiting to be activated) that Cosmos/Metapsychosis start a writing group with a (hopefully) good question, rather than my concrete proposals, though I definitely have some thoughts.
However, my initial assumptions are more structurally oriented, and not as purpose or process inclined. The desire to write—whatever that means (I confess, I sometimes forget)—has always been at the heart of this whole endeavor for me. I started Cosmos+Infinite Conversations+A Theory of Everybody+Metapsychosis(+Untimely Books) because I needed a UNIVERSE in which my own writing could develop, evolve, and propagate. I was tired of working in a void, sick of the cultural wasteland. (For this reason, this project has also represented the greatest avoidance of writing, on my part. But I have other reasons, which I believe are sound, for the detour…even if it’s nigh time to get back on the path.)
Although the ultimate conception of Cosmos (as a platform co-op) may transcend “writers & artists” as identity categories to include “creative” people generally, which is to say all human beings (not to mention scientists and activists, et al.), for me this project grows out of the need to self-realize as a writer—and to survive. Of course, I hope as well (though it’s not up to me) to be read—but only if I’m really worth reading. This means I’m also eager to improve—to work on my work (and myself), to ask the hard questions (of consciousness), to practice the (trans)discipline of art.
How can we catalyze each other as writers & artists? In some ways, I believe we’re already answering this question through our interactions on the forum and publications in the journal, etc. Our dialogues are highly creatively stimulating and we do a lot of ‘writing’ here, after all. But I would like to ask how we can begin bringing forth works—the best works! Works of ‘very stable genius’! I mean: our novels, tomes, epic poems, alternate universes. Or simply: what’s deepest and truest within us, artfully expressed. What are your thoughts?