All the Glorious Whimsies and Woozies

How we tell on ourselves and why it matters

“Style is the stuff you get wrong.” —Neil Gaiman

One of the interesting things about AI art is the ways it tells on itself. Similar errors pop up, revealing that an image was not constructed by a human artist. An extra finger, or a strand of hair with weird loops. Maybe these goofs will disappear over time as the technology improves, but for now we can snicker and point at them. (This isn’t a post about AI—I’m only starting here.)

Most human creatives aren’t perfect either. If you’ve read my creative writing, you might have noticed fragments, run-on sentences, playful punctuation, and words that aren’t words. Sometimes I get things wrong on purpose. Sometimes… I’m less intentional.

Maybe AI will point and laugh at me one day! That’s not a terrifying concept at all.

“A writer’s voice lives in his or her bad habits. That’s the heart of a voice. The trick is to make them charming bad habits.” —Elizabeth McCracken

As a young dancer with horrendous turnout, I found hope in Bob Fosse’s journey. He possessed many shortcomings and his anatomy didn’t lend itself to perfect technique. But, he kept at it and ended up creating an entire choreographic language that incorporated his specific shortcomings. Instead of masking them, he expanded them into something entirely unique, pushing musical theater and jazz dance forward.

• Check out a video of his dancing and early choreography here.

• The Fosse/Verdon miniseries from a few years ago is an excellent exploration of his life and impact.

photo by author

[spoilers ahead for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3—scroll down to skip]

The High Evolutionary is a great villain featured in GOTG3. A character prone to tinkering, the High Evolutionary explained that he was inspired by Earth’s art and culture, but discouraged by the ugliness of humankind. He made the classic utopian/dystopian error of trying to create the perfect society by tweaking the raw materials, hoping his experiments would exhibit all the perks of humanity and none of the drawbacks.

It never occurred to him that culture and art aren’t born of perfection. They weave glory with struggle, pettiness, spite, misfortune, mistakes, imbalance, fear, and more. Beauty and discord often snuggle up next to each other, comfortable as kittens.

(Which isn’t to say we shouldn’t try to grow, but not in the way the High Evolutionary intended… I like otters too much for that.)

[No more movie spoilers. I promise.]

“One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn't exist.....Without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist.” —Stephen Hawking

Take away all our whimsies and woozies, and our art and culture wouldn’t be much to speak of. Perfectionism, and the pursuit of perfection, holds creatives hostage. Instead, explore. Play. Grow. Make mistakes. It’s what we’re supposed to do.

Thanks for reading! Have an amazing June, filled with popsicles and sunlight.

~Sarah

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Newsletter: If you’re looking for more Substacks to engage with, you can’t go wrong by following Mark Starlin Writes! He’s a regular publisher who sends out all kinds of great, funny fiction.

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Stuff I Wrote

(ungated links)

Voice of Reason

The entrance to the cave was lined with rows of pointed teeth, giving it the appearance of a shark’s leering maw. Only a fool would enter that foreboding cavern, about which many songs had been sung—songs including words such as anguish, fester, scourge, and bewail. The mermaid swam inside.