David McElroy

I wasn’t even supposed to be in the class. I was a sophomore at the University of Alabama and I was taking a creative writing class that was supposed to be reserved for seniors and grad students.

The instructor was a stern older man with a long history as a published literary author. I had been required to get his permission to sign up for the class — and he was dubious about whether I was ready for the work. It turned out he was right and I was wrong.

There are basically two kinds of writers, to oversimplify quite a bit. There’s the literary kind, the type who write fiction and creative writing that leaves you feeling as though you’ve had an experience with art. And there’s the kind who are really good at communicating information in a straightforward way. That includes journalists and most essayists and even technical writers.

The instructor was the literary type. I was the informational type.

My newspaper training had made me really good at writing clear and concise accounts of events. I could even write opinions well. But I was terrified when given the chance to take a chance on literary writing. After a few sessions of the class, I got scared and dropped the course.

I’ve realized recently that I am at the point in life at which I have to make the transition — from glorified copy boy to making actual art — that I was afraid to make back then. It still scares me.

Keep Reading

Most people sense that something is wrong with modern culture. Even if they can’t put it into words, most have at least a vague feeling of discomfort. It’s a feeling of dread about the future.

What we’ve known as Western Civilization is slowly breaking down. It’s happening because of changes rooted in bad philosophical ideas and misunderstandings about how technology affects us. Rational people lost the culture when they allowed irrational people to take over academia and substitute the fuzzy ideas of postmodernism for the ideas of the Enlightenment. And now we are heading for a new Dark Ages again.

But even if you start seeing outlines of the core issues, it’s hard to create a coherent narrative to explain to others what’s going wrong. Without that, you’re powerless to change anything, because it’s almost impossible for most people to see the precise nature of the intellectual, moral and cultural rot around them — even if they’re vaguely aware that something’s wrong.

Without such a simple narrative, nobody will listen. They’ve been taught they already know everything worth knowing. Technology has destroyed their attention spans. They want everything presented as a funny “meme” — with maybe 10 words to attack whoever they hate — and they’re not interested in looking beyond whatever shiny thing has caught their attention right now.

This is one of the most important things I’ve ever said — to anybody, anywhere — but almost nobody will hear it. Even fewer will understand. Their eyes will glaze over instead. And that breaks my heart.

Keep Reading

A sweet little girl amused me at dinner tonight — but she embarrassed her mother.

Kayleigh is 4 years old and her mom is one of the managers of a restaurant where I’m a frequent customer. I was there for dinner Friday when Kayleigh came in with her mom and I got to meet her. She’s an outgoing little girl and she likes to talk.

When she found out my name, her face lit up and she said, “You come in here all the time!” I asked her how she knew that. She looked proud of herself as she explained how she knew who I was.

“My momma has a crush on you!” she said happily.

Her mother turned purple in the face and they suddenly had to leave.

I’ve told this amusing story to several people tonight, both online and in real life. A common response from well-meaning people is that I should ask the mom to go out sometime. I’ve tried to explain why not — and I finally had a sudden insight.

I’m not interested in Kayleigh’s mom. She’s attractive enough and she’s nice enough, but something’s missing. She’s not an “alpha woman.” Something clicked and I suddenly realized something I’d never noticed before.

Keep Reading