Intellectual Vice

Intellect is predisposed to thievery and pride. A reader of an admirable author soon becomes a plagiarist. The reader then goes on to write and appreciate his "own" work, mostly because it resembles the author he so enjoys.

What happens when the reader becomes acquainted with more authors? Initially, his prose style takes on a form that's more akin to changing costumes than consistent thinking. But as he reads more and more books, having formed specific interests, he begins to realize that there is not as much diversity of thought between authors as he once anticipated.

And so he wonders, "Why should I write at all?"

Dreams

Sometimes dreams are a paradox; you dream about not being able to sleep, for instance. Other times dreams are factories of fiction, the contents of which even a manic writer would be hard-pressed to imagine during a creative writing session. The absurdity and creativity of dreams puzzle the normal contents of our waking lives.