Epic Heroes, and MBAs

Bloganuary writing prompt

What makes a good leader?

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Probably more rambling than precise commentary on this today. And I’m going to be a be brief with the intention of planting more seeds for thought, than providing answers myself. Partially because these thoughts aren’t fully fleshed out in my own head.

I am a particular fan of Beowulf, and wrote a few jumbled posts on the poem Growing Old with Beowulf, and An Aging Warrior Beowulf. In Growing Old, I briefly mentioned Ring Giver as his title. Remembering that a poem like this would have been intended to teach and set a high ideal, as MBA programs weren’t online when the poem was written so it was harder for everyone to attend. Stories provide that replacement.

The thing that caught my eye was first “Ring Giver” is intended to show how the spoils of his victories which was looted wealth and lands was given liberally to those loyal to him. This paired with a less legislated structure and more bound by social ties. “I am loyal to you because you have been good to me” compared with “I am loyal to you because of a contract which I’ll be bound to in a judicial system” means actions past, present and expectations of the future drive behavior. Not an administrative apparatus.

Beowulf didn’t preside over a kingdom of vast size, and as a result he didn’t need a strong administrative state to manage it. He could from his seat, or from a horses ride. As kingdoms grew and consolidated that need for strong administration and the structural apparatus that arose, degraded the importance of The Big Man in the chair. This would be why Beowulf had to give liberally and personally led his kingdom to battle. It was required, but why we don’t have a history of sitting presidents doing the same. And also why, even in our modern military our leaders spend very few years in the thick of battle positions and quickly move into administrative positions.

Which if I were to use a word, it would be sad, that takes the romance out of leadership. As administrative skills, which I extend beyond filling out papers, but understanding the importance of structure and process to manage subordinate decisions, not direct intervention. Is more important in very large organizations. Nations, or businesses all have similar considerations, albeit different goals.

Maybe I just want to drink mead in the hall with the king and his ilk, stories and food. All that. But I’m not in my twenties anymore though, and mead makes me a bit sick. But for all the romance of that era, the closeness of the communities, there is a lot of security in a bloated administrative apparatus, in a business or a state. It is why in more developed countries you don’t have to worry about the local count raiding and pillaging the surrounding countryside, it isn’t just because they are too fat.

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Write Diamonds

In the interests of brevity, I’ll do my best to be short. Blogging encourages that as a format. Which I don’t mind.

A brief exchange I had with another writer, where he was quite critical of those who write for self-expression, closed the gap on my own considerations of writing. There is a quote I love attributed to Ernest Hemingway, “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”

On one hand, I believe that writing for the purposes of self-expression is incredibly selfish. It is the equivalent of saying, I have problems, here they are, and I expect you to dedicate your precious time to consuming them. Also, be nice to me. I believe that.

Conversely, Hemingway is right where by right. And an author can lay themselves down as a sacrifice to their community on a topic. Which is incredibly selfless.

How to thread the needle on that, and where is the final decision on that? Readers get to decide ultimately, once a work is released it how it is consumed by the world is not up to the author. It isn’t fully your work anymore.

This is where being conscious of that thin line between selfish self-expression and deliberately serving up a piece of one’s self for public consumption matters. I’ll use the idea of crafting diamonds, not for their rarity (See Debeers intentional supply control), or their beauty, because that doesn’t matter. But because of the way a diamond is cut, and how it reflects and refracts light. How it is different depending upon the angle it is viewed at.

Read any work, and the resulting criticism. How each era will inject itself into a piece and gain new relevance. Was John Milton a feminist? is one of my favorites. When a writer presents something personal and relevant, that can be respected for its substance enjoyed from its artisanship, those works become diamonds. Relevance to the greater public, either as a piece of historical social commentary, or something that always carries new weight. Diamonds are timeliness to as an addition to the metaphor. 1984 by George Orwell as a great example of a book that always feels relevant.

Many works carry far greater weight than the author intended, The Outsiders strikes me as a book greater than the author intended. Milton’s Paradise Lost, well, he was pretty arrogant, talented but arrogant. This is all to say that the intention of the author, the care which they manage their craft, and deep consideration for their reader all matter. And with a bit of luck, a culture or institution will align itself with a work and give it greater reach.

As a final note, I’m not arrogant enough to believe I craft diamonds. Most of what I do is blindly stumbling through writing.

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Growing old with Beowulf

I had originally went to the bookstore in search of Virgil’s Aeneid, or the Argonautica. Can’t say I was entirely surprised they weren’t on the shelf. I did stumble upon Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf. I had Beowulf on the back-burner for a while as I’ve been working my way through the classics.

Pro-Tip if you want to get some sleep. Cicero’s On Duties, I get pretty drowsy about 3 page turns in. A Roman senator writing a letter to his son about how to be a good person, although thoughtful and informative is not a riveting read.

Beowulf, though. Has the unique distinction of showing the lifecycle of a hero. It allows him to grow old and die. He lived by hits wits and strength, and was a good member of his community, considering all the flaws of his age and the world he lived in through the modern lens, that live a good and honorable life was the question that drew me in.

In a summarized version of the story:
Beowulf answers the call of Hrothgar and kills the monster Grendel, with his bare hands.
Grendel’s mother gets angry, and Beowulf has to also battle her, but barely wins.
Beowulf returns home and honors his king, helps his community and becomes king himself.
Beowulf’s community is attacked by a dragon, he leads the charge, kills it and dies.

I left out some really great items but want to highlight a few things. Every time Beowulf defeats a monster, Grendel or the mother. He always honors the king, his host, and God. He is proud but not boastful. He is consequently honored for both is actions and his service.

As a leader, he gives graciously to his community, “Ring giver” is the term they use. I think it is truly a passing of rings as a form of wealth, but the point is he shares in his wealth and accomplishments. You can see how in a modern context, where wage gaps are a real issue, this can have a topical appeal.

Finally, as a leader, he led. When the dragon attacked, Beowulf in his later years was still a capable warrior, he didn’t get unnecessarily soft. And even when all his men fled, except one, he fought and killed the dragon in a battle that came down to a small dagger he kept on his boot.

As much as Beowulf is a heroic tale it is a story about how to act within a society. How to act with pride but not arrogance. And how a leader should function within a society. In a modern context we grow our claim by taking without giving because that is what the system and culture encourage. And where leaders are shown sitting down issuing orders, Beowulf has his hands dirty setting the example.

Also, the mead hall. We need more mead halls.

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Poetry – Maybe

There are a lot of things I’d like to be called. Titles I’d like to be associated with, Husband and Father are the big two. They are simple, human, and identifiable. As well as minimalist in their associations. There are negative associations, but if anything they are generic. Easily outweighed by the positive. They are also distinctly associated with the masculine, but also, in a positive way. Not that I wake up thinking, “Let’s make sure we are a man today.”

I think they are the positive characteristics, that are gender-neutral, but also most often associated with masculinity. Providing, protecting and nurturing. A package of adjectives that could be associated with a farmer, or herdsman. The care of herd animals is often called husbandry, for a reason.

Author probably could be in there, after publishing some books that really went nowhere. At home, my children don’t know I’ve published, but as they are voracious readers, my books are not for them. My wife hasn’t read my books, and considering the one was a memoir from my twenties, I’d say that keeps me out of trouble.

Accountant is a definite, I enjoy and lean in on the geeky, banal associations. It answers some questions and misdirects people in a way that I find useful. I am pretty dangerous with Excel, and too analytical for my own good. Most importantly neutral. No one says, “Oh, I hate accountants,” and means it in a visceral way. Maybe they hate taxes, but the emotions associated aren’t the same as with lawyers, or politicians.

Veteran I will always struggle with. Maybe I’ll grow more comfortable with this. For now, I still feel too much fake pity and its associated displaced superiority from others when this part of my background comes out. I don’t know if I’ll ever truly have a positive association with “Thank you for your service.”

Poet, is one I’ve been struggling with, I’m quite comfortable writing prose, in my post Poetry for Better Prose I articulated that I am learning poetry as a means of improving my prose writing. Which I am comfortable with. Maybe it is that first bit of toxic masculinity that I am predisposed to as a cis-male. I don’t want to be that beanie wearing, Starbucks latte drinking “Poet.” Who, isn’t even a new stereotype, those types loaded the coffee shops of France during the revolution, or the cafe’s of Russia during the communist revolution. Yes, Trotsky, your bros.

I admire the beauty of Whitman’s poetry, Leaves of Grass is meditative to me. I don’t want to be that kind of crazy bearded fellow, as charming as I find him. I also have a respect for him, for his work in the war hospitals, it was a simple kindness.

I think about my daughter, bringing home a moody poet, who wants to be respected for his art, and pitied for his displacement within society. How he is just misunderstood, and really hasn’t been appreciated. But he is no Percy Bysshe Shelley who was a bit of a train wreck himself. Or Ovid, who gained a great deal from his willingness to participate in the mercenary patronage system. Elevating Augustus in a way that is distasteful to modern readers, if they get that far.

Brief note on the patronage system, I think I could get behind that. I’d rather have to appeal to a single patron than to a mass of distracted ones, filtered through a few publishing gatekeepers, at best. Or a modern algorithmic social media giant.

I have a catalog of poems, brief free verse pieces that I write in the quiet mornings while the sun rises on my Notes app on my phone. Or while my kids play and I soak up more sunshine than my pasty accounting skin can handle. The technical side of poetry appeals to me, but if I’m being honest, I have no rhythm, none. I can’t see the meter, and can barely identify syllables. So, if I’m criticized for staying in free verse, it is more out of necessity.

With all that said, as with my prose, poetry pulls at me, bits of lines that pull, short stories that demand to be written grind through my head. There is a reason our ancestors referred to muses, it does feel like another personality imposing itself upon the author.

If you are kind enough to read this, and my poetry. I do invite commentary, criticism and the like. I want to get better, and that is a crucible of judgement. I’ll release poetry, generally as I put them together.

Maybe someday, I can see the humorous look on people’s faces as they find out in addition to writing books, that I write poetry.

As a final note, people don’t refer to one another by gardener. It is considered a hobby and does not receive the same prestige as a profession, even if writing is a hobby to me as well. Farmer is a profession, and is considered a classification of note. But I like gardener, it is simple and earthy. The metaphor of the garden, I also find powerful and of increasing importance as I think about the world.

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AI – Why not to fear our digital overlords.

When I grew up, my mother read pulpy romance, and my father read technical manuals. There was an apocryphal story within my family about him failing a grade and being called “Retarded” when that was an acceptable diagnosis for a teacher to make.

It was dyslexia. He was able to overcome that but reading remained a challenging topic, technical manuals held the power of simple and clear logic diagrams that could transcend his disability.

There was one exception to the rule, and that was The Adolescence of P-1. a charming book written in the 70’s about an accidental AI that goes rogue. Having had to pare down my always-growing library of books after moving repeatedly, P-1 always stays in my library.

Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s in a digitally competent home, I have been a curious follower of AI since I was a child. A computer my father built started on fire in my bedroom, I grew up with this stuff. The last year I’ve been following it even closer. I’m competent with Stable Diffusion, and Textual inversion. My cover work was done with prompts to pull out the characters I wanted to grace my cover. You can see some of them on my Wattpad page here. And I do this all with AI on my local machine, not a powerful piece of hardware but it does the job.

Now, I’ll start my real criticism to say that I believe AI will be a tool like all tools, to make us more of what we are. Expect more social media, fake news stories customized to your preference type to manipulate your opinion. More spam emails, text or whatever other path to try to trick you. That I anticipate. As if we don’t already experience a deluge of content garbage.

I don’t think it will replace people in a way that any other technology would not have.

I’ll also highlight, that human’s read other people’s writing. My own is a synthesis of my personal experiences mixed with the tools I’ve learned from reading other writers. I read a fair amount, and I try to read a diverse spread to improve my writing. That is why AI did, it didn’t lock it up in a database as we traditionally understand it. It build models to reference. And every word it writes is based upon an algorithm (albeit unknown) built upon the previous ones, in order to satisfy a prompt.

It is easy to go down the narrative that, this is what a human does, except for two key components. First is that the computer has no personal experience to draw from. The second is that words have a definitional meaning, but they are also symbolic representations. The most beautiful poetry and prose are extensions of these symbols. Which the readers can draw upon. It is why a book read in class may seem flat until we learn the story behind the story. The gaffer’s comment about potatoes, as an example from Lord of the Rings. It is a powerful, throw away comment. AI wouldn’t have the ability to make it, it has no experience and expresses no symbolism.

Expresses no symbolism, is how I’ll phrase that, because we, we humans will project our symbolism. That is a subtle but important difference and really why I believe it is fun, but definitely not going to take anything from the writers who wake up a bit groggy every day and need some coffee. There is magic in those wee hours that the servers in California can’t replicate.

That said, I’ll share two poems, light-hearted entries that Chat GPT wrote for my youngest. The first was a Homeric epic about how he takes big poops, he thought it was hilarious. The second was in the style of Shakespeare about a boy who stinks, which made him quite sad. These are all extensions of a theme where I call him Stinky face, a reference to Lisa McCourt, wonderfully written and Cyd Moore’s gorgeously illustrated I Love You, Stinky Face.

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