I'm a writer whose strength is in argument, though the form this has taken over the years has been widely variant; from writing a news article for The San Francisco Chronicle, to becoming three-time college debate state champion, from music and poetry to film and a great deal of essays. My approach in every case, though, is the same. I isolate a single, provocative claim out a general idea, then use symbolic tools, words or melodies, to convey to an audience the inherent value of that claim, whether that value lies in truth, beauty, or even the horror of the claim. Arguing for an idea, rather than describing it, is to demonstrate why that idea matters, how that idea interacts with all the ideas which it bumps up against, and what understanding tell us about ourselves.