Pick! Choose! U Must Select A Muse for This New Year but be carefull.. they are TRICKEY

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It's 10:16 pm on the eve of the New Year. Sitting in my apartment with my beloved, drinking a St. Bernardus. This year, I learned a lot of things. I became more mature in my faith, more mature in my thinking in general; I'd like to think more nuanced. I certainly feel a bit older. There is a lot of unfinished business from this past year. Also a lot of things I need to start doing a lot of things. Here are my resolutions:

I think these are pretty lofty, but also quite manageable. All it takes is a bit of hard work, which is something I have a bit of a problem with. Please pray for me, whoever reads this blog.

I watched a Serial Experiments Lain essay the other day which was quite terrible. The topic was indoctrination and radicalization. I should have known by the title itself that it would be very biased, but I watched it in good faith and was sorely disappointed. There is something offensive about using a work of art as a jumping-off point to talk about a subject it vaguely touches on rather than actually delving into the text of the show and wrestling with its meaning. The video just took scenes from the show, summarized them, and then proceeded to talk about the most basic psychology of cults and specifically right-wing conspiracy theories of the 21st century. It was effectively just a propaganda piece. Propaganda is such a crass thing. It's a rapacious thing when applied to a work of art. It takes hold of the work and objectifies it just as a capitalist looks at the land as nothing but something to be exploited and afterwards discarded. The landscape of a work of art must be understood by its ecology, that is, its symbols. The flora and fauna of a work of art are the characters and settings that exist within it and work in a symbiotic fashion to give voice to a certain muse.

Muses are something that neither the modernist nor the post-modernist understand. A work of art is not reducible to the author's intent nor is theādeath of the author something to be wholly considered. Instead, artists work together with a muse. Every artist knows that his inspiration and choices for a work do not come solely from himself. If they do, they are typically lacking in substance or some transcendent quality that makes the work worth visiting. A good work of art always involves a muse and the best works typically even invoke them. The most fundamental works of Western literature: The Illiad, the Odyssey, and the Bible, all invoke muses. The first two invoking the gods of poetry, the latter being written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The invocation of the muse need not be explicit. The lives of the prophets themselves invoked the Holy Spirit's indwelling, just as our lives are pattern after the manner of a certain spirit; that is where pattern is derived from. Who is your muse?

That's all that's on my mind for now. I wish you all a Happy New Year! Let's all do our best for God's sake and for our sake and for the sake of our loved ones. There is always so much more we can do; especially in this age of distraction where our time is attenuated by devices. Let's abandon those devices and live more and more each year in the real world. God bless!

By Tejano