Chuck Wendig: “I Don’t Wanna Talk About This Sh*t Either”

This is a post I want to share with you guys, as it goes through a lot (and I mean, A LOT) of emotions that many folks are currently feeling, in the writerly world and beyond. Chuck Wendig addresses the cries of “I wish you’d get back to art and stop politics!”

You can find his original post here.

I respect you not wanting me to talk about this.

Honestly, I don’t wanna talk about this shit either.

I’d rather talk about literally anything else. Otters! Bees! Cool new sex moves! Books I’ve read, movies I’ve watched, ancient beasts that I have hunted through eldritch wood! I would much rather talk about writing, or cursing, or arting harder, or poop jokes, or pee jokes (though at least there, our current president allows me to pull double-duty). But I wake up every day and I just peek at the news with one half-lidded eye through gently lifted Internet blinds and boom, it’s like that scene in Terminator 2 where the nuclear blast annihilates everything. OH GOD CHRIST IN SOCKS IT BURNS, IT BURNS. The news isn’t good. It’s not, “Hey, Congress did something nice today.” Or, “Wow, Trump gave a kitten some milk.” Instead you get WALLS FRAUD LIES MUSLIMS ILLEGALS TOMBSTONES OBAMACARE CARNAGE SEND IN THE FEDS.

I don’t want to talk about any of this.

I don’t want any of this.

Some of this is normal run-of-the-mill bad. Some of it is a guttering transmission bad.

Some of it is existentially bad.

So, on the one hand, I get what you’re saying. You want to come here, and maybe you want a vacation from the horror show. I grok that. I do. I want to be that port in your storm (wait that sounds sexier than I intend it). I want to be safe harbor from Satan’s Orgy. (Actually, let’s not diss Satan like that. This is much worse, and Satan’s probably pretty cool — after all, he hosts orgies.)

On the other hand, sometimes it feels like when I get these messages, what you’re saying isn’t that you want an oasis in the shit-show, but rather, you want me to shut up about stuff. Because sometimes your emails have that vibe of disagreeability, as if it’s less that you don’t want to hear about politics and more you don’t want to hear my politics. You want me to do the monkey dance you like, not the monkey dance you don’t.

And while I respect that, I gotta do my monkey dance. Not yours.

I definitely recommend reading the entire post over at Terribleminds.

Do not forget: all of us are human. Some of us are trying super hard to be cyborgs, but ultimately, we are still more human than machine. Also, do not forget that those of us with voices must speak for those without them. Yes, our voices get tired, overworked and raspy, but still, we must scream and put it out to the universe that shit just isn’t right right now. We’re reacting to unprecedented change- much of it straight up not good. From defunding the NEA, to the million other things currently flurrying about in a USA snowglobe being shaken by an impatient 5-year old, we’re all kind of losing our minds.

So please: we don’t want to talk about it either. But… someone’s got to stand up.