Neil Jussila, Black Sound (2006), acrylic on canvas

Read this very closely. 

Take interest in what you have interest in. Do not be a slave to general zeitgeist, memetic net culture OR fandom juggernauts. Take interest in only that which interests you. Fuck everything else and anyone that would deride you for your interest or call you pretentious for what you love. Take interest in that which is particular to you.

Go find the things you love. Find what it is about them you love, how they were made, who made them. Go to the places those things come from and trace them to where they end up. Even in those moments where you feel like it separates you from other people, keep going.

Eventually you will find what it is about you that causes you to like these things and at that point you will find the core operators of an idea called ‘self’. Once you have found that point you will have found those people to share that core with. Take part in that feedback loop.

Learn to, as NYT Op-Ed columnist David Brooks put’s it:

 ”…appreciate the tremendous power of particularity. If your identity is formed by hard boundaries, if your concerns are expressed through a specific paracosm, you are going to have more depth and definition than you are if you grew up in the far-flung networks of pluralism and eclecticism, surfing from one spot to the next, sampling one style then the next, your identity formed by soft boundaries, or none at all.” 

It is good to be particular, for particularity is difficult; that something is difficult must be a reason the more for us to do it. 

now, reblog this and spread the word.