James Joyce, Motivational Speaker

James Joyce (image via openculture.com)

I am interrupting our normal programming to bestow a bit of creative wisdom. You see, there are times when I feel unequal to the task of writing something truly great, because I fear that I have not a truly great mind. I fear that my interest in pop-culture and other seemingly base and worldly pursuits have produced in me an inability to express the truest and most noble pursuits of the human soul. Sometimes I wonder if I have traded in greatness for pleasure and lofty pursuits for trivial ones.

Surely I am not the only one who sometimes has these doubts. There must be at least a few of you who struggle as writers, artists, musicians, or what have you, to have faith in the excellence of your souls. Perhaps you, too, wonder if years of low-brow pastimes have dulled the keenness of your self-expression and the depth of your emotions.

When you are feeling these things, I encourage you to find inspiration in James Joyce. This man was the author of such great works as The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and the groundbreaking Modernist work, Ulysses, regarded by many as one of the most difficult works of literature to read. He was also the author of some of the dirtiest, skankiest love letters you may ever see. I won't post a link, for fear of scandalizing my dear readers, but I assure you that they are rather steamy.

If Joyce could linger in both the realms of the profane and the genius, then so (probably) can you. Take heart, and keep creating! And don't forget to tune in next week for more pop-culture and media related phenomena!