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Lindsey Lamh's avatar

This was a wonderfully thoughtful read, Chris. And I appreciated the references to Miyazaki too. I want to study the four-fold style more. Maybe I’ll use it in some of my future novels! I haven’t really felt like a three act structure does quite what I want.

One of the things your post made me consider was the strangeness of families who pile on outside “work” to their busy home lives. From the outside, it must look like pointless mess to dig up a pond and wait for something to happen; after all, don’t you have school and laundry and cleaning and church and work and bathtimes and doctor appointments??? But families are going to be messy and chaotic and constantly moving regardless, so directing that energy toward life-bringing, curiosity-feeding experiences can help to beautify the mundane of daily chores and childcare. I love the idea and we are trying to lean into it as a family more this year (despite having a very humid summer to look forward to!)

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Mark Rico's avatar

Including that link to Miyazaki's AI reaction was a great choice. "An insult to life itself." As a copywriter, I use the machine to speak to the machine. For example, when filling out the Google business page for clients, we use AI to write all the service descriptions. Give it direction and input, and it mechanically writes complete and accurate information. However ... I've tried using it to write articles. It always answers with complete, accurate (mostly) articles that are transparently two-dimensional. No inherent style, unless you direct it to write in a particular style. And even then, it's a facsimile of human expression and I can tell. We write all of our clients' on-site content ourselves.

I do resonate with his sentiment that humanity is losing faith in itself – in terms of our ability to meaningfully create. It's no surprise that amateur poetry and prose are exploding on platforms like Substack. Especially among people of faith, because many of us are strongly aware of our God-breathed creative calling and find little satisfaction outside that framework.

Have you spent time in Japan? Your perspective seems shaped by the East. My own was deeply affected by my time there.

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