Dermis Forum Favorite Subject

Okay. I know I've been kind of lax about this. So here is today's question: what is your favorite subject to write about? It can be anything - an object, an idea, a person... as long as it's some THING.

I don't want to know what your favorite part of writing is, so don't talk about it, unless writing about writing is your favorite thing to write about. Also, it doesn't have to be anything you write about a lot. Just what you enjoy most.

Here, I'll go first.

My favorite thing to write about is religion. It permeates everything I say - though it doesn't always seem obvious.

When I say religion, I don't mean masses, dogmas, or congregations. What I consider to be religion is the personal belief system that each person builds up for themselves personally, and how they communicate with whatever they feel is the higher part of themselves or things.

We all do this, in a strictly individual way that makes our beliefs ultimately separate from what any group of people may agree on. Sometimes we call part of this our personal philosophy. Sometimes it manifests through prayer, expectation, pessimism, or meditation. Everyone, though, does it.

The reason I keep this separate from philosophy is because philosophy deals with a lot of rhetoric that we may give credence, but does not necessarily impact our personal lives. Our actions reveal where our true faiths stand - and they are faiths, everything we choose to act on or agree with. They are dependent on our subjective experiences, our comfort zones, and our conceptual constructs. That's why, no matter how many labels we will ever slap on variations in religious and philosophical belief systems, each person will remain at least nominally outside those boundaries when all is accounted for.

So, yeah, religion. Everything I write is filtered through my own personal beliefs, and this I know is not the same as objective truth - there is no such thing.

family

I tend to write about whatever I happen to be into at the moment: politics, pop culture, religion, music, my own fucked up imaginings. It all blends together into a fine stew. Though, to be fair, an inordinate amount of my stuff tends to focus on dissatisfaction and apathy. The current trends of culture always seem to depress me in some way or another, and that leads to ranting and misplaced affectation. So yeah, that.

Also, puppies and rainbows.

Yeah, I get the same kind of depressive feelings from it. That's why I try and try to work out in my head what makes it like that in the first place...

What do you suppose does make it like that?

Rainbows, maybe. Puppies... only if they're eaten by their mothers.

I would think mostly apathy on the peoples' part, coupled with blissful ignorance and a willingness to cede control over most decisions to someone else. The fact that these "someone else"s do not have the best track record in looking out for others' best interest hardly seems to matter. A lack of intelligence, maybe? I don't know. The whims of vagaries of culture mystify me sometimes.

I write most about who the catch of the day is. lol No, seriously. Love inspires me when nothing else does. That pretty much runs the scope of hatred, lust, irritation, joy, sadness, everything.

The Weird and The Strange,

I love it.

Hawksmoor...From The Bleed.

Great question. I guess I'm always striving for that aha moment, a level of understanding of either my own reality (past, present, or future) or that of others. I love the human mind (in all of its distortions) so exploring that is probably my favorite thing to do. I am forever reading, researching, and analyzing so finding a way to creatively express (or simply communicate) my thoughts is the ultimate rush.

I suppose, to be honest, though i try and abstract; aim to pull away from it and universalise everything, like most writers my favourite subject is myself. i try to smash the eye of the i into fragments; to approach things from oblique angles, but I has a loud voice. all my characters are funhouse mirror version of parts of me (even the ones based on other people). someone somewhere once said that everything you do is a self portrait.

Sure, Paul. I agree. I grew up with religion being hammered into me. I write about it because it reflects the part of me that cannot let that go and has no other proper outlet for it.

Hold on... I have to fish out a quotation for you....

"Where Western philosophers such as Immanuel Kant believed there are "things in themselves" separate from our perceptions of them, Steiner noted that such a division can't be maintained. To separate thoughts from the "things in themselves," to alienate matter from mind, is already, always and only, a thought - therefore it lacks intrinsic validity. Thinking is an aspect of reality - as much a part of the world as any physical object or process - and cannot be amputated from it... Thinking is not a passive tabulation of facts, nor can science lead to a definitive "final theory" about the universe. Thinking becomes, instead, a creative and participatory act that transforms reality."
- Daniel Pinchbeck, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl

I could probably find better references to subjectivity and the interaction of mind with the universe, but I just came across this one yesterday, and you reminded me of it.

I like to write about my characters..but they are all apart of me..so in a way I like to write about myself.

When I was discovered (since I didn't one day wake up and think maybe I'll be a good writer)..all I was doing was writing college essays...which I knew jack s**t about, but when homework needed to get done, I sat down and wrote what was floating around upstairs. Before college...I was writing this story to my best friend...I did not call it writing, despite all the pages I spat out each day and emailed her, I was just telling her the story. I kinda envy my innocence there..because I was writing more then than I do now.

Now..I try to stick to the stories..because no one is going to want to know who I am until I'm famous..then people who knew me back then will realize they never knew me.