The planet is becoming more accessible to us daily. But our access to every nook and cranny opens up more worlds within worlds than we had thought possible. As an example, we can now probe deeper into mid-Atlantic channels under the sea where undiscovered species have been left in peace for millenia. And what do we do when we get there? Say, Give us a wave for the cameras?
In my tiny village of 900 or so inhabitants, a multitude of world languages are spoken - but most commonly Castilian Spanish / Castellano, Valenciano (regional language closely allied to Catalan Spanish) and English. The potential for word confusion, cultural mishaps and misapplied social etiquette is enormous. Restaurant signs abound with torturous misspelling in every idiom - including Roast shoulder of a Kid and Bruised Octopus Babies. And the greater my accomplishment with the two variants of Spanish, the more I can perceive my cultural naívety.
Why am I telling you this? I'm a writer. I freelance for a living, and get offered jobs daily to correct manuscript proofs, re-write dull web articles or product descriptions, create book press releases or give feedback on non-fiction eBooks. I am also writing a YA novel (it feels like its actually writing me, the pages are flying past so fast) and chasing an agent for Blacks Crackle - a novel about women, plants and perceiving the darkness in people. And it strikes me that my world of work is apeing the state of the planet - as worlds within words open up before my eyes while areas that once seemed rich seams to mine are now dwindling. Publishing is changing, the media are sprouting new heads alarmingly, the web is awash with words and so many of them need correcting and re-shaping that I could imagine staying awake forever with matchsticks propping open my eyes in some awful sci-fi experiment to proof the entire www - hang on, I've gotta get this down....
You get the picture. No sooner do I master Blogger and Twitter and Redgage and LinkedIn, then another arena opens up begging for my input/output. Which of these Brave New Worlds are worth my time? Nobody knows. No-one is an expert anymore, because we have all diversified ourselves into tiny niches and the web and technologies are whirring into being at a rate of knots (or is it nanaseconds?) about which no one person can be fully informed. Sigh. Where's Douglas Adams when we need him?
So I watch newspapers shrinking or adopting global stances and new markets, and I sit in the middle at my desk and feel alternately like the Wizard of Oz (getting away with the sham...) or the Minotaur (lost in the maze, bullishly obstinate and condemned to devour all the babies presented to me...Oh, I've just scared off ANY fragile clients now.)
How do you feel in this New World Order?
