Idleness

I’m writing a second blog post for the day because I haven’t quite satisfied my urge to write. I guess it speaks to my underlying need to feel relevant (even to myself) whilst recognising the reality that people aren’t exactly beating down my door to ask me for work. It’s probably one of the many narratives we’re fed when we’re young that we all wait for success. It’s like the good guy always loses yet the evidence of the Trump years is quite the reverse. ā€˜Twas always thus, I suppose, and it’s certainly true of “success”. You don’t wait for it. Nor do you really earn it. You probably have to steal it forcibly but I’m not a forcible enough kind of guy.

Take the cartoon I posted earlier today (no, please, take it). I’ve been struggling to draw a cartoon about the George Floyd story but it came to me earlier today that the cover of the classic Pink Floyd album could be adapted. The idea of drawing Trump’s head as the prism but with the coloured light coming in from the left and exiting as white (I pondered making it pink) made sense. Trump as a filter seemed like a nice idea.

So, I took about an hour to draw and colour it. Posted it on Twitter. Five retweets. Not many more likes.

I. DO. NOT. GET. IT.

Perhaps it doesn’t work. The science, I guess, might be faulty since white light it a combination of the colours. Perhaps people don’t know Pink Floyd. Perhaps I’m just overthinking it like I overthink everything. It’s a symptom of lockdown. Too much time to second guess everything when I really need to stay busy.

I keep wondering about writing a book. I also wonder about doing a book of these gag cartoons I’ve been drawing and not sending to Private Eye. I was hoping to write about the US situation but I’ve not been asked. Keep thinking of starting a new letters project but my motivation is low. I found the address of the old company I used, priced a PO box, and concluded that now isn’t the time and not simply because I’m being really careful with my money. COVID is still around. Maybe not the time to be using real-world post. Maybe next year when things get back to normal and, hopefully, the economy starts to rebound.

I don’t know. I just need to find something to do because this idleness is beginning to chew me up.

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Why Dunciad.com?

It’s a cool domain name and it was available. Yes, I know. Available. Crazy, isn’t it?

Really?

Yes. It also helps that it’s also my favourite satire written by Alexander Pope, one of the most metrically pure English poets who also knew his way around a crude insult or two. If you’ve not read it, you should give it a try.

So this is satire, right?

Can’t deny it. There will be some. But it’s also an experiment in writing and drawing, giving work away for free in order to see how many people are willing to support a writer doing his thing. It’s the weird stuff that I wouldn’t get published elsewhere in this word of diminishing demands and cookie-cutter tastes.