More on the nature of my work... (you REALLY need to get this)
Joel Harris <leojharris@gmail.com>
Fri, Oct 4, 11:36 AM (11 days ago)
to James
Continuing on some thoughts I tried to convey during our phone call today.
It is super essential for you to find some way to realize/come to terms with the FOLLOWING FACT:
Since I was 12, my chosen disciplines, passions, project concerns, and constant efforts have required isolation.
Solitary work. Alone time. Necessarily so.
It is how I work, and it has always been how I’ve worked. It’s how ALL of us, including my contemporaries and me, have worked over the years. We work alone. We work in our rooms. We are out of reach for great deals of times, project depending … ;-)
You have no way to understand that, I think …
Your generational view of habits and careers is skewed just by coming up in the whole pipe yard—physical labor, no offense, but sort of industrial demographic; you and your fellows have never really spent a life dedicated to considering ideas. That's not bad, but it is precisely what I have done since I was 20.
Your mind simply can’t comprehend that being alone, in silence, working at some significant effort, might be sitting alone in a dark room, taking only piss breaks and the annoying need to eat.
This is a natural and perfectly perfect work environment for some of us.
I mean. You’ve sat and moved rubber and metal things around every day for your entire life; so it’s not a surprise that you’d find a person who’s entire liffe’s effort revolves around being alone, in a perfect project space, dedicated to simply *creating* new things might seem weird or troubling but let this be a public marker (and here too, this is all public)
Get used to it; it’s the way I intend to spend the rest of my adult life. It makes sense …
But for god sake. If I disappear into my room for five days? Just realize that’s totally normal. Call me on my phone or something. It is the nature of my work and has always been. Lordy, I keep wanting to call some of my old co workers just to call and talk to you and to further clarify your misunderstanding.
And for what it’s worth? As I’ve published on my blog of late? I will maintain a mostly inverted sleep schedule from your own for I’ve found it most beneficial. I’ll genererally be sleeping when you are here and awake. My work day generally begins once you have retired for the night. You’ve likely noticed.
It’s the nature of my creative work that I must necessarily be “hermited” …. And I enjoy this actually. And I'd happily argue/go at it intellectually with anybody who might care to take me on in that.
Have fun with Joe Namath!
Love,
joel
