The first thing I know is that striving to improve my writing is the last thing I should do. (I should do it, but it should be the last thing I do.)
The second thing is the importance of the reader. (But this raises the question: Is the reader a segment of the population or is the reader first and foremost myself?)
The third thing I know is the importance of the mind's eye, (Where beauty is beheld, readers bond with books, and all the things that cannot be said start to sing.)
Wittgenstein says what we can't speak of, we should shut up about. Wyeth's drybrush "On Her Knees" gives us an image that speaks beautifully and rockets far beyond delimiting words.
Is Helga "A Perfect Woman"? I believe Wyeth thought so. He made 238 images of her. He was driven, I think, to capture her "perfection" and in "On Her Knees" he did.
And there she is, deep in thought, her nipples impossibly pink, her bush a masterpiece of nature, the soles of her feet dirty from walking around barefoot. Not idealized, realized, timeless, dominating memory.
Or more specifically, "Why? The Purpose of the Universe." It's current philosophy by Philip Goff that attempts to bring the reader up to speed on trends and differences of opinion about the effort to unpack reality.
"Why?" is a slog. It gives one a brain ache the same way Nagel's "Mind and Cosmos" gives one a brain ache. Thinking is hard. The consolation prize is there is humor on hand to provide relief.
Abigail Tulenko wrote an article for AEON, "Folklore is philosophy", that leads with Pretty Maid Ibronka. She's after truth, which shows that in addition to being pretty she's also smart.
The first line in "Same Bed Different Dreams" is: "What is history?" Okay; I'm hooked.
Terms and conditions appear on page one: The real world (business), teams (conflict), word origins ( "The Latin, from the Greek" etc. ) Etymological sightings; I'm hooked.
"Only by going off the grid can one enter true history...go back to Day Zero." Words follow: "wit", "litany", "mental lapses". Page 1 even ends with my favorite word; I'm hooked.
Lillian Fishman, in a series of three articles in The Point, writes: "In terms of sex, there is no real world." Further on: "There is only the familiar and the unknown." These statements are contestable.
Add to these: "Love is an indefinite and mutually passionate verbal exchange." This statement demonstrate the peril of using words to get at something deeply meaningful.
Wittgenstein said: "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." This is another easily debated statement. And still, we all keep scribbling away.