{"id":621,"date":"2010-10-08T09:29:29","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T17:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikevarley.com\/?p=621"},"modified":"2010-10-08T09:35:21","modified_gmt":"2010-10-08T17:35:21","slug":"the-mike-varley-plain-dealer-the-what-inspires-you-lecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/?p=621","title":{"rendered":"The Mike Varley Plain Dealer: The “What Inspires You?” Lecture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear friends and all,
\n\u00a0
\nIs there a use to holiness in this modern world?\u00a0 If we can push enough of our animal buttons to be amped 85% of the time, isn’t that enough?\u00a0 Do we really need a soul after all?\u00a0 It won’t change my miles-per-gallon.\u00a0 I ask this genuinely: do we need a heart to go with our head?\u00a0 I assume the aching would feel natural after a few generations.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nIs there a more abrasive word than religion these days, and is spirituality to die with it?\u00a0 Why does molestation now rhyme with priest?\u00a0 I want my sacred leaders back.\u00a0 The moneylenders have stolen the vestments and speak the rites with perfect diction.\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nThe freedom of restriction is rich with tradition yet nobody seems the least curious.\u00a0 Doesn’t that strike you as god?\u00a0 To only on holy roads trod?\u00a0 Building boulders so pretentious that you yourself can’t lift them – at least that’s how they’d frame it on the website formed to mock you.\u00a0 But those shrines to your weakness were only meant to teach us that such logic traps can only snare dirt eaters.
\n\u00a0
\nThe path to the truth intersects our lives daily, yet nobody seems apt to choose it.\u00a0 I’m not saying we haven’t got time, but how many times must we lose it?
\n\u00a0
\n*****
\n\u201cWhat Inspires You?\u201d <\/a>is a survey lecture on writing I prepared in August 2010 for an appearance at the Harborfields Public Library in Greenlawn, NY.\u00a0 The title was not chosen by me, but the more I read it the more I favored its meaning.\u00a0 During the lecture, I encouraged questions from the audience both to nurture their interests and challenge me to make new connections.\u00a0 In both these aims, I believe the lecture was successful.
\n\u00a0
\nThe lecture runs about 80 minutes, broken up into 15 different tracks.\u00a0 The subjects are as follows.\u00a0 Go to the “What Inspires You?” page <\/a>for the\u00a0corresponding\u00a0Youtube videos:
\n\u00a0
\n01.\u00a0 An Introduction
\n02.\u00a0 The Forms: Short Story
\n03.\u00a0 The Novel
\n04.\u00a0 Poetry
\n05.\u00a0 Screenplay
\n06.\u00a0 The Artist Statement
\n07.\u00a0 First-Person Perspective
\n08.\u00a0 Third-Person Perspective, Limited and Omniscient
\n09.\u00a0 Second-Person Perspective
\n10.\u00a0 Perspective Comparison
\n11.\u00a0 Fiction vs. Non-Fiction
\n12.\u00a0 Structure: The Whittler and The Woodworker, The Chessmaster and the Child
\n13.\u00a0 Style, Austin, TX on Publishing and more Style
\n14.\u00a0 Revision
\n15.\u00a0 Touchdown: A Poem
\n\u00a0
\nYou can also download mp3 versions of the lecture and a pdf of the lecture notes at the “What Inspires You?” page<\/a>.
\n\u00a0
\nThanks for listening.\u00a0 Until next time, take care.
\n\u00a0
\nRegards,
\nMike Varley<\/p>\n\t\t

\r\n\t\t\tDear friends and all, \u00a0 Is there a use to holiness in this modern world?\u00a0 If we can push enough of our animal buttons to be amped 85% of the time, isn’t that enough?\u00a0 Do we really need a soul after all?\u00a0 It won’t change my miles-per-gallon.\u00a0 I ask this genuinely: do we need a […]<\/span><\/a>\t\t\r\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t\r\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear friends and all, \u00a0 Is there a use to holiness in this modern world?\u00a0 If we can push enough of our animal buttons to be amped 85% of the time, isn’t that enough?\u00a0 Do we really need a soul after all?\u00a0 It won’t change my miles-per-gallon.\u00a0 I ask this genuinely: do we need a […]<\/p>\n\t\t

\r\n\t\t\tDear friends and all, \u00a0 Is there a use to holiness in this modern world?\u00a0 If we can push enough of our animal buttons to be amped 85% of the time, isn’t that enough?\u00a0 Do we really need a soul after all?\u00a0 It won’t change my miles-per-gallon.\u00a0 I ask this genuinely: do we need a […]<\/span><\/a>\t\t\r\n\t\t<\/div>\t\t\r\n\t\t","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46],"tags":[170,76],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":623,"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions\/623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikevarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}