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This is probably the first and last time I am going to post my opinions about the current trend in self-advertisement for freelancers...

This is probably the first and last time I am going to post my opinions about the current trend in self-advertisement for freelancers. I see an alarming increase in arrogance and violence towards those who are not following the mainstream, independently from the type of mainstream. Try to write that you do not like something other people like or try to correct some patent mistake: you will be a) offended, told you are incompetent, arrogant and prig in a tone that is nothing less than incompetent, arrogant and prig b) given no ration support to the offence or heavy criticism c) told to go to hell – once I was told to kill myself. No, I cannot take that, so I found that keeping my opinions to myself is safer and easier because, let us say it, nobody likes to be gratuitously attacked at every word she says and be involved in wordy feuds. Because, you see, I am not the kind of person that goes with the mass and I cannot stand violence: I see a frightening equation between mass and blind violence and I guess history offers many chances to prove I am not mistaken. I am always on “the other side”. It is not by choice: I always find myself on the weak side, on the unfashionable side end of the divide to sympathize with the vanquished and offer a listening ear to the voice crying in the wilderness. I cannot stand conventions and I cannot see why one should submit herself to them without questioning them.

So, back to the title. Yes, I am against storytelling, social media and modern marketing. I am bored to death reading all the proclamations, the jokes, the mental contortions, the silly news, the intimate confessions and the supposedly funny videos that populate people trying to advertise their products on social media. The platitude! The human squalor! The sheer bore of all that! I am not in the least interested in knowing that Miss X likes distilling some para-philosophical platitude or Mr Y is pondering on the impact of bovine intestinal emissions on the climate or that Mrs Z feels she is a woman during winter and man during summer because all I want to read is PEOPLE SHOWING THEIR PRODUCTS so that I can see whom I can send my portfolio to. I do not want to be entertained, I do not want to be educated, I do not want to be amused, I do not want to be engaged in personal relationships with strangers and, in my turn, I do not want to entertain, educate, amuse, build a personal relationship with strangers: I just want to be noticed for the quality of my designs and be chosen to WORK.

Work is the word. Pure, sheer, simple work. Were I interested in being an entertainer, I would be a stand-up actress. Were I interested in being an educator, I would have gone on working as a teacher. Were I interested in being amusing, I would have been a comedy writer. Were I interested in being a personal relationship maker, I would have been a PR.- But I am not. I am a painter and a surface pattern designer and all I want to do is sell my work so that I can live out of my work. I do not want to waste my time trying to be funny or interesting or educational, I do not write books any more – too tiring for my health! - because all that stuff, all that emphasis on storytelling a) lies its foundations on people’s infamous appetite for gossip and b) is a decoy, a deceptive manoeuvre to conceal its real aim, that is TO SELL.

In the correct context, there is nothing bad in selling, provided the aim is overt and clear. Among people who are in the business area, there should be no need to cloak the need to sell one’s products with stories and oblique gimmicks to attract people’s attention because the thing is: I offer this and that, if you want some of my things, ask me and we will see if we can make a deal. This is how I see things and this is what I do. I will never tell stories from my life, show cute pictures of my baby children (BTW, I have got no children!), climb a mountain to have an interesting background for my artwork or make prostitute’s faces to sell. It is NOT me what I sell. I sell my art. I offer only that. Those who want that know where to find me. Will I succeed? Probably not but, hey!, this is MY life and I want to live the way I feel it is right.

 

PS: I chose to intentionally write this piece in very formal English because I do not want to conform to the mainstream shabby style. If I sound annoying, it is better to stop reading.