Being a writer and depressive, something’s always wrong. The day’s too bright; the night too dark. It’s too hot or cold. I’m just plain tired.

That’s the fortunate part of being a writer. The unfortunate part is writing stuff that just wasn’t cool, isn’t cool, will never be cool. All this “writing for story” garbage is just that, garbage.

That’s why I embark here on an experiment to write a post-mortem for the post-modern and develop a post-post-modern narrative. But then again, we are post all those posts. We are in an age of complete atomization. The idea, then, is to reflect the atomization of all things human, the lawlessness and cruelty of that atomization, and connect with the universalities of human experience, which, of course, is the ultimate atomization.

I call it writing for the Aerosol Age. Interestingly, such writing has to take into consideration that as human lives, institutions, and principles become ever more fractured–atomized–the reaction is to believe that lines are clear. That here is here and there is there. That good and bad have clear demarcation.

But because these lines never existed in human reality, despite their presence in human cultures, the atomization of life brings culture into line with reality. Declining to be insulted by being called a relativist, I will instead embrace it. All of everything, in a metaphorical sense, is gray.

So, to write for the Aerosol Age, I will employ nothing clever, outlandish, extreme, or over the top. Instead, I will attempt to fuzz, blur, and unfocus. I have a feeling that the writing will resemble that of the American Exile, or post-American Naturalism, when language, story line, and arc all became simpler, easier to penetrate. In turn, the object is to penetrate the cultural/social/political/economic fog with clear, universal, and humane storytelling that does not resort to splash to get attention.

But it’s a tough road. I want to avoid the provocative, achieve the evocative, and keep a safe distance from sentiment. The problem is not the difficult negotiation this implies. The challenge is making these maneuvers while keeping things interesting. If there’s one thing I can’t stand is boring, overly naval-gazed, nuanced bullshit.

Tell me a story, goddammit.