Here's another pep talk for you special snowflakes who need someone to remind you to keep your opinions and your backbone, despite what the adgame might be doing to you. Paul Arden delivers his usual distilled smarts in his second book, despite the fact that he claims he can't write. He makes up for this by writing a lot of short sentences and hitting the return key way too often. His books are to young misunderstood adgrunts what the little black poetry book is to Emo kids. If you know a sulking creative at your office, this might be the right gift for them.
I used to commision a lot of photography. Consequently, people weere keen to show me their work. 99 percent of portfolios I saw were of a very high standard. But 98 percent of them contained pictures I had seen before. Obviously not the same subject or composition, but I had the general impression that I was not seeing anything new.
They didn't have a point of view. If they did, it was that the viewer of their pictures (me) should like their work. Very occasionally I saw the work of someone who did have a point of view, whose works was like no one else's. These were often difficult people, almost unemployable because you couldn't tell them what to do. Sometimes it went wrong. Sometimes it didn't. When it didn't go wrong it more than made up for the times that it did.
In 1975 the Czech artist and animator Jan Svankmajer had his work suppressed by the communists. Had he the wrong point of view? Or was it the right point of view, seen by the wrong people? Today he is a national treasure. Is he now right, and they were wrong? Or is he still wrong and they were right? It is exactly the same work but seen from a different point of view. The prevailing one being what the majority think. People are like sheep: they follow the leader. It is the leader who has a point of view about which way they should go. Having an original point of view or angle is a novelty. Recognizing its value is intelligent. Having the courage to stand up for it in the face of public opinion is what make you a winner.
You can buy "Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite" by Paul Arden at Barnes&Noble
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I think the opposite. I think he can write, and he's noticed an appetite amongst the short attention span generation for soundbite philosophy. I often see such books: they want me to like them, but I can't get over the nagging feeling that they aren't telling me anything new.
(*phones literary agent with idea*)
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