3/19/2006 - Letter to Christopher

Some person I don't know sent me the following message, duplicated for you below:

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Christopher
Date: Mar 19, 2006 12:02 AM

Hello Person.

What are you worth? No, that's a bad way to begin an introduction. Hopefully, I eradicated its bad-ness by saying that it was bad. But this is nonsense.

Let me be straight with you, and save the elaborations for a later message. This is the important information. You sound interesting, so you might be able to help me. I am the kind of person seeping with creative potential, but I am the victim of solitude. I need to develop a sense of society with other people.

No, not straight enough. I'm thinking I need a job as a screenwriter's assistant, or some job in the business where I can get noticed. And it all begins by knowing people. You're a person, so I might be able to use you. Not in the offensive dejected sense, but in the friendly, cordial, I've got nothing to lose by contacting you because I don't have anything you can take from me.

But even if you can't help me in the directly practical sense, that's fine. We can communicate to eachother with these symbols and see what ideas evolve.

By the way, my myspace has nothing on it, as you can see, because you're the first person I've ever contacted with this apparatus. Take it as a compliment of initiation.

-------------------------------------------------------------

And it prompted me to write the following response:

"Hey Christopher

Your logic is somewhat fuzzy and you come off as reasonably sociopathic. If you are really 18, then disregard this statement. All 18 year-olds are sociopathic. You're on your way. Self-consciousness can be a valuable tool when it comes to personal growth.

Self-proclaimed victims of solitude are victims only of self-proclamation. I talk to a lot of people that consider themselves socially isolated. Some cases are worse than others, but it's a universal condition. Even if you had 2000 friends in the movie industry you'd feel isolated and solitary.

The comfort lies in knowing we are all alone together. The thing that seperates us is also what binds us together.

The first step to establishing a relationship with the rest of society is to have the desire to empathize with it. When pursuing a career in film it should be innate to consider your audience's point of view. When talking to a producer and trying to convince them you are a capable, articulate director you have to intuitively tune in to that person's body language and say the right things. It takes a lifetime to develop these sorts of skills, but if you don't have it, you've got nothing. The roots of human nature lie in the ability to empathize, form social networks, and communicate with one another.

Let's take what you wrote me, for example:

" I'm thinking I need a job as a screenwriter's assistant, or some job in the business where I can get noticed. And it all begins by knowing people. You're a person, so I might be able to use you. Not in the offensive dejected sense, but in the friendly, cordial, I've got nothing to lose by contacting you because I don't have anything you can take from me."

First off, thank you for being honest. That's a good quality to have because you will consistently get useful feedback about yourself, and not whoever it is you made yourself up to be. You're right. It does begin by knowing people. By that I mean- really KNOWING people. That leads me to something you should never forget, because you will never get ANYWHERE socially or professionally if you maintain this mentality- people are not commodities.

You can't use me, because I am not like a pencil, or a computer. I am like you. People have their own free wills, their own social inclinations, and most importantly their own intuitions about who they trust, confide in, bond with and form both personal and professional relationships with. Most importantly, I want to emphasize- they have the CHOICE whether or not to do so.

I do not know you, and you have bluntly referred to me as if I am a commodity. This in no way made me feel indebted to reply. However, I tend to float on the more charitable side of the spectrum, and more importantly, I tend to enjoy rattling off in general- so regardless of this, I offer my advice.

It is clear to me that you have placed yourself on the defensive, assuming that I would have any desire to take anything from you. Very protective of you, but you're also alienating yourself in your defense. What I gather from what you wrote me is that you're incredibly self-involved. Don't take that that wrong way at all. We are all of us, INCREDIBLY self-involved. We can't help it.

It's a fine line and I've got to go to work now, so just remember a few things:

never be presumptuous about where you stand in other people's perspectives if you don't care to understand their point of view. That's a breeding ground for delusion and it's never going to get you anywhere

people will only care to help you to the extent that you care to help them. "Care" is the key word there. That jesus guy was on to something, you know what I mean?

unless you're incredibly mind-blowingly talented in an idiot sauvante sort of way, work on getting over the sociopathy. It's crippling, and those genius people i speak of, they're not really sociopathic they're just kind of retarded and pseudo-sociopathic autists. People that want to use other people in order to emancipate themselves from solitude are setting themselves up for a lifetime of walking around in circles. best of luck with all that-

over and out,

Jo