"Play It As It Lays": Lessons From Hunter Thompson, Thomas Pynchon & Joan Didion

Like many of my posts over the years they are often inspired by reader comments, this one is no different, prompted by a comment from the following substacker, mani malagón, who I thank for the insight:

Interesting thesis (though the writing feels LLM scripted). Learning How To Think (LHTT) is the core issue. Indoctrination, training, education — distinct formative hierarchical categories — can lead to critical thinking an independent thinking. Curiosity & play are IMHO the human route.

This fellow Substacker has directly noted that my writing feels LLM scripted, which it has certainly come to be. Conducting deep research means working with all kinds of different characters and wild ideas.

My writing has come to heavily intersect with that of AI agents and uses a partnership between myself and several LLM's to arrive at otherwise unobtainable conclusions.

By combining my own creative direction and independent ideas with the work of AI agents my work takes on dimensions which are otherwise impossible.

I learned this craft from a very unexpected crew of writers who shaped my development growing up, influences which are celebrated across my websites and manuscripts.

My readers are more than familiar with my indebtedness to the work of such heavy hitter powerhouses such as the blend of classical writers which, combined with the 20th century literary powerhouses: Joyce, Pynchon, Brautigan, Snyder, Kerouac, and of course Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, and fellow terrorists such as Eric Hoffer.

One I have left out until now is the work of one Joan Didion, major 20th century literary figure who gave the instructions to my upcoming generation of writers: PLAY IT AS IT LAYS.

In short, what this means is I have absorbed a method of thinking and writing which uses the material I have available in my time and place.

I deliberately move into territory where others will not go. I descend from a long family history of map makers and explorers, and though I had no ancestors in the Donner Party, like Didion, I owe her in many other respects.

As I write this a painting of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson glares down over my shoulder.

I am being held to a high standard, one I must either attempt to live up to, or must crawl under a rock somewhere for a long nap.

I am quite sure that in measuring my work against these standards that I will fail - and fail quite spectacularly.

But then my motto is learn to fail much better with each repetitive failure, until after a while no one can ignore the spectacular nature of these failures.

Here we enter into what the generation ushered in by Pynchon's "A screaming comes across the sky", and by Joan Didion's "Play It As It Lays" is trapped into writing about.

Because it is only inside the trap, where the Master Keys which the Rounder in the Iron Mask is handing out, are to be found.

Inside the trap: Nashville

History suggests that to the people living through it, a renaissance rarely feels like an awakening — it feels like surviving a collapse. The citizens of fifteenth-century Florence did not walk around congratulating themselves on birthing the Renaissance; they were navigating plagues, political assassinations, and the extreme, destabilizing wealth of a few ruling families. The golden age was labeled retroactively. In the moment, it just felt like chaos.

From inside the Nashville area, the Californication of the city is the crucible where this modern friction burns hottest. When imported tech wealth and overwhelming infrastructure demands hit a city fundamentally built on raw, acoustic storytelling, the collision is violent. The local culture is forced either to gentrify into a sterile, theme-park version of itself or to dig its heels in and create something dangerously authentic.

When the environment becomes hyper-managed, prohibitively expensive, and culturally imported, producing gritty, unpolished, deeply human art ceases to be just a career choice. It becomes an act of defiance.

The Medici writes a check

On October 4, 2026, Oracle announced a $10 million gift and strategic partnership with the Nashville Symphony. Days earlier the Symphony had suspended its season and announced furloughs, set to begin October 18, for its 27 full-time staff and all 77 orchestra members. With the gift, the 2026–27 season resumes and the furloughs will not occur.Symphony

"Oracle's commitment is a lifeline for the Nashville Symphony and the community we serve." — Mark Tillinger, president and CEO, Nashville SymphonyOracle / PR Newswire

"As Oracle builds its new headquarters on Nashville's East Bank, we are here to help solve the community's problems and ensure Nashville remains a vibrant place to live and work for generations to come." — Clay Magouyrk, CEO, OracleOracle / PR Newswire

The 82.3-acre East Bank site will serve as Oracle's global headquarters, and the Symphony's financial strain deepened after the death of its main benefactor, Martha Ingram. Oracle is, in WPLN's words, "massively expanding its footprint in the city" — the headquarters, plus a pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland to Germantown.Nashville Scene · WPLN

Beneath the press releases, the mechanics of the merchant guild are on full display. Larry Ellison's Oracle is building its sprawling new world headquarters on Nashville's East Bank. Rescuing the city's premier acoustic institution for $10 million — a rounding error for Oracle — is the ultimate act of establishing feudal benevolence in a new kingdom.

The son's empire

Larry Ellison's son complicates the board further. On October 6, 2026, the $111 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery closed as Skydance Corp., led by chairman and CEO David Ellison. The Ellison family and RedBird Capital together hold all of the voting shares; the equity was led by Larry Ellison, RedBird, LionTree, and the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.Variety

"Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry." — David EllisonVariety

The combined company now controls Paramount Pictures and the Warner Bros. studio; HBO Max, Paramount+, Pluto TV and Discovery+; and the networks HBO, CBS, CNN, TNT, HGTV and the Food Network.Business Insider

"We have a good relationship with this administration... We do not want to politicize the company." And: "we want to be in the truth business and we want to be in the trust business, and we believe in complete editorial independence." — David Ellison, press conference on the Paramount lot, October 6Deadline

Big tech, big media, and Nashville's artistic infrastructure now meet in one family. The patrons have arrived, they have the capital, and they are buying up the cultural real estate.

A self-aware renaissance

A self-aware renaissance is an unprecedented historical event. In Florence or Harlem, the participants were driven by instinct, survival, and the momentum of their era; they lacked the hindsight to know they were fulfilling a recognizable pattern. A generation of creators armed with historical literacy and real-time connectivity changes the physics of the movement. Knowing what is happening does not stop the cycle, but it alters the balance of power between the patron and the artist.

When the craft guild of Nashville — the session players, the songwriters, the independent producers, the storytellers who actually possess the raw material of human meaning — recognizes the merchant guild for exactly what it is, the dynamic shifts from exploitation to a calculated symbiosis. The merchant guild is starved for authenticity, seeking a grounding its optimized systems cannot generate. Aware of that leverage, the craft guild can take the capital needed to survive and build its own infrastructure, while keeping the soul of the work out of the patrons' reach.

Knowing you are in a renaissance strips away the romance and reveals the mechanics of the moment: a wealth class that has money but no culture, and a working creative class that has culture but is being priced out of its own home.

Play it as it lays

Didion's phrase is the survival tactic of the cagey creative. It means recognizing the board for exactly what it is, without romanticizing it or complaining about the rules. The creatives in Nashville cannot stop a multi-billion-dollar tech giant from moving in, and starving out of pride serves no one.

To play it as it lays is to take the $10 million so the musicians can feed their families and keep their instruments tuned. Let the patrons put their name on the programs. Then use the breathing room they just provided to write the character-driven, irony-soaked work that exposes the absurdity of the techno-utopian empire.

The artists do not have to win a direct war against the tech titans. They just have to survive on the titans' dime long enough to build something real.