A line a day

Another new year, another resolution...though not new! Yet again, a resolution to write more...any kind of writing! So to start off, I plan to pick a random line out of a random book and write about it.

Today's line:
"Well, first of all its job is to persuade people to buy what you have to sell, and do it by being as glossy and seductive as possible and only telling people what you want them to know."
- Pg 93, The Salmon of Doubt, by Douglas Adams

The line is referring to a brochure. I had to read the line before it to understand what it was all about. Even then, I feel a bit stranded and at sea on the context. First thoughts, gosh I really need to read this book again. I remember reading it, and liking it...and usually I remember the general gist of the books I read (and like.) But this one ... nothing. Not even after reading the back cover synopsis (of course I would read that first!) All I got was a feeling of 'yep of course I've read it, but can't remember what was in it!'

A parallel thought was marketing?? My first line ends up a marketing line? How weird. Why exactly its weird I don't know. But the feeling is one of 'whoa...was not expecting that!'

The second thought doesn't lead me anywhere...but as I write this, I'm thinking I'm just sitting with the thought...is that my state of 'being'...am I finally getting the feel of that elusive state of 'just being'? Of course thinking about it destroys the state...much like Schrodinger's cat ... once you gain knowledge, you lose that suspended moment of 'being'.

As I digressed on being...and the thought of being, one part of my brain is jumping up and down saying, your first thought also led to more thoughts. Thoughts that were in my mind and ready to be typed even as I was typing the earlier paragraph. They were so clear then, but now seem nebulous bits of fluff. Here...I took a pause and leant my head on my arm to look at the laptop to actually sit and think about the thoughts that I sidelined. I'm sure they are rattling around in there somewhere. But I'm not sure why I need to stop and think about them, when I'm already in the flow and writing. Because in the end, writing is the goal isn't it. Not incoherent thoughts. Or misaligned paras. Or even lack of a central plot.

And all I feel now is wow...way to ramble! The line was on persuasion, glossiness and seduction, telling people what you want them to know. And maybe thats what we all are on the outside. The way people see us, the way we want them to see us and the way we see ourselves. But underneath that brochure, there is a morass of incoherent ramblings, random connections and just being. Our inner chaos. Always there, always suppressed by the need for rationale, purpose and result. As nonsense sounding as the Salmon of Doubt (really? what kind of name is that!), but then, every profound thought that deals with the randomness of existence, probably sounds like nonsense to a neat t's-crossed, i's-dotted brochure.