Martian Thoughts

Writing for beauty

As marketing has become the dominant force of the early 21st century, its influence has pervaded almost every inch of our existence. Whether intentionally or not, we use more and more marketing terms in our general speech and private conversations. More than specific terms, though, it’s the persistence of ideas that seem to inform how we should express ourselves or what we should seek.

Artificial Intelligence has progressed in leaps and bounds in recent years. A couple of decades ago, we would be lucky if a spell-checker could produce a decent grammar suggestion. Spelling errors didn’t pose a challenge, but anything more than that would be far too much to ask. In contrast, these days, we get all sorts of recommendations including how to write depending on the purpose of the writing. Yet, as an avid AI user, I keep perceiving a bias toward direct, clear and concise language. In other words, the language of marketing.

Naturally, clear writing inspires clear thinking, and vice versa. However, when it comes to art, pragmatism is hardly a priority. Art blooms from confusion and emanates clairvoyance in the most tumultuous darkness of the human psyche. It sheds light where there’s none, cracking otherwise hermetic parts of our essence.

Literature is more interested in beauty than clarity. As shocking as it may be for some marketing-imbued minds, we often don’t read to inform ourselves but to find pleasure. What is conveyed is an equal partner to how it is expressed.