What is craft and what does it do, part 3

Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

WHAT IS CRAFT AND WHAT DOES IT DO, PART 3

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24. Craft is an idea of craft. Which is to say both that craft is an idea and that craft is how ideas get presented as if they are not craft.

25. One can master various aspects of craft but not the whole thing. Because craft is about ownership, about who possesses it and how to possess, mastery is a conflict between owning and giving up ownership of oneself.

26. Craft is “do as I say not as I do.”

27. Craft is less how you build a house, than what you think a house is. Craft isn’t a double-edged sword, it’s the thing being cut. 

28. Craft isn’t a mirror or a window, it’s the sticker on what you see that lets you know it’s a product and where it was made, because that is a reason some people buy it. 

29. Engaging with craft is engaging with how much of who you think you are is what others think about you. 

30. An engagement with the work must include an engagement with craft. An engagement with craft must include an engagement with power. An engagement with power must include an engagement with the world. An engagement with the world must include a disengagement from the work. A disengagement from the work must include an engagement with the inability of craft to express the work. 

31. To be a writer is to wield and to be wielded by power. There is no story that is not about how power works. There is no craft that is not about how power works. To better understand power is to better understand how to write.