That still smells like hope to me....

You don't get there by acculturating. Don't become awell-rounded person. Well rounded people are smooth and dull.Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle.Stick in their throats like a pufferfish. If you want to woo themuse of the odd, don't read Shakespeare. Read Webster's revengeplays. Don't read Homer and Aristotle. Read Herodotus where he'soff talking about Egyptian women having public sex with goats.If you want to read about myth don't read Joseph Campbell, readabout convulsive religion, read about voodoo and the Milleritesand the Munster Anabaptists. There are hundreds of years ofextremities, there are vast legacies of mutants. There havealways been geeks. There will always be geeks. Become theapotheosis of geek. Learn who your spiritual ancestors were. Youdidn't come here from nowhere. There are reasons why you'rehere. Learn those reasons. Learn about the stuff that was buriedbecause it was too experimental or embarrassing or inexplicableor uncomfortable or dangerous.

And when it comes to studying art, well, study it, but study itto your own purposes. If you're obsessively weird enough to be agood weird artist, you generally face a basic problem. The basicproblem with weird art is not the height of the ceiling aboveit, it's the pitfalls under its feet. The worst problem is theblundering, the solecisms, the naivete of the poorly socialized,the rotten spots that you skid over because you're too freakedout and not paying proper attention. You may not need muchcharacterization in computer entertainment. Delineatingcharacter may not be the point of your work. That's no excusefor making lame characters that are actively bad. You may notneed a strong, supple, thoroughly worked-out storyline. Thatdoesn't mean that you can get away with a stupid plot made ofchickenwire and spit. Get a full repertoire of tools. Just makesure you use those tools to the proper end. Aim for the heightsof professionalism. Just make sure you're a professional *gamedesigner.*

You can get a hell of a lot done in a popular medium just byknocking it off with the bullshit. Popular media always reek ofbullshit, they reek of carelessness and self-taught clumsinessand charlatanry. To live outside the aesthetic laws you must behonest. Know what you're doing; don't settle for the way itlooks just cause everybody's used to it. If you've got a paletteof 2 million colors, then don't settle for designs that looklike a cheap four-color comic book. If you're gonna do graphicdesign, then learn what good graphic design looks like; don'tscrew around in amateur fashion out of sheer blithe ignorance.If you write a manual, don't write a semiliterate manual withbad grammar and misspellings. If you want to be taken seriouslyby your fellows and by the populace at large, then don't givepeople any excuse to dismiss you. Don't be your own worst enemy.Don't put yourself down.

I have my own prejudices and probably more than my share, but Istill think these are pretty good principles. There's nothingmagic about 'em. They certainly don't guarantee success, butthen there's "success" and then there's success. Workingseriously, improving your taste and perception andunderstanding, knowing what you are and where you came from, notonly improves your work in the present, but gives you a chanceof influencing the future and links you to the best work of thepast. It gives you a place to take a solid stand. I try to liveup to these principles; I can't say I've mastered them, butthey've certainly gotten me into some interesting places, andamong some very interesting company. Like the people heretonight.

I'm not really here by any accident. I'm here because I'm*paying attention.* I 'm here because I know you're significant.I'm here because I know you're important. It was a privilege tobe here. Thanks very much for having me, and showing me what youdo.

That's all I have to say to you tonight. Thanks very much forlistening.