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Literarylicense
Newbie Poster
Username: Literarylicense
Post Number: 6
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 03, 2005 - 08:18 pm: | 
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I'm relatively new here...but I have a question to ask The Board and would love to get some thoughts on the subject.
After a recent discussion with several artists (writers, poets, Emcees, designers, musicians)...the question of whether one would accept a deal from a major publisher, record label, etc...if given the opportunity even if you were asked to compromise your art, came up.
For example, say you begin writing street lit, but did it only to gain attention, and but you want your next work to be more of what you really wanted, but a major house offers you a 2-book deal to write something like the original.
What would you do? Do you write from your heart, or you go where the money is, because you can always create your art later??
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 1025
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 04, 2005 - 12:16 pm: |
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Literary:
Depends on how bad I needed the money. |
Literarylicense
Newbie Poster
Username: Literarylicense
Post Number: 9
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 04, 2005 - 05:01 pm: |
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lol...lmao |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 1029
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 05, 2005 - 10:13 am: |
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I mean, look at Chester Himes. Starved and suffered for his art. Came the day his books were out of print, he was down on his luck and starving. He wrote the Harlem Detective series, which were potboilers and which he described as absurd himself.
Mario Puzo wrote two highly regarded literary novels that went nowhere and was regarded as a failure. Then he wrote The Godfather--fused crime fiction with best seller trash--he stated himself he knew nothing about the Mafia save what people told him.
It is very easy to talk about being true to one's art until it is cutting time. All of them have had to take low--sometimes using psuedonyms. |
Yvettep
Regular Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 39
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 05, 2005 - 03:22 pm: |
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I like this question, Literary. Reminds me of some soul searching I did before going back to graduate school. Do I really want to suffer for my dream? Do I really have the stamina to play the games, jump through the hoops--all at this age?
In the end I decided I had a choice: No one has to be a PhD--and the world will keep spinning if I don't. What the world needs are excellent plummers. Or car mechanics. Or teachers. But another PhD?...
That freed me--I would "suffer" for as long as/and as far as I deemed necessary/bearable. It was my choice. Then, if I chose to cash out, move on, I would--with no feelings of guilt whatsoever.
It's pretty arragont for me to be be in a position where someone is willing to give me money for some honest effort and I'm wondering "Well, I'm not sure if I should take that money..." My great-grandmothers should have been so lucky to have had the option to turn their backs on a dollar earned!!!
Don't get me wrong: I do understand your question, and relate to it in a very real sense. But I think that too often when we get into like-minded, homogeneous groups ("bunch of artists," "bunch of academics") we tend to lose the broader perspective.
My late maternal grandmother was a pianist who performed with her husband's jazz band as a young woman, and solo in supper clubs later in life. She always told me, "No matter what your dreams are, always have a little secretarial job on the side."
(I know this example isn't exactly what you were talking about, Literarylicense, but my spirit felt the need to invoke my grandmother this afternoon!) |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 2010
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 05, 2005 - 04:34 pm: |
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Almost everyone wants to write something that would be regarded as "literate". Only, just because one has a desire to write something that makes them true to themselves doesn't mean it will dazzle the literary world and inspire publishers to purchase the work because it deserves to be in print and will win critical praise and maybe even awards. Writing is such a extension of one's psyche that it's hard for an author to be objective, and it doesn't seem to occur to writers that others may not be as impressed with their work as they themselves are. It's not like writers have a choice between writing a good book or a bad one. The choice is more about whether to write this kind of book or the other kind. A writer is only as good as his or her talent. And all talent is not created equal. But - who can tell a writer not to follow her Muse???? Just keep that day job in case your aspirations fall short. It's been said that writing is a lonely profession. And it is. All a writer has for company is his ego. |
Literarylicense
Newbie Poster
Username: Literarylicense
Post Number: 10
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 07, 2005 - 04:52 pm: |
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Perhaps, the job of the artist is to invoke that same passion or meaning in all their works, even those of which they consider trite...
Is that possible though...to have your work play a dual role? I like to call it "cloaking the message" in my writing.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 2013
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 07, 2005 - 05:10 pm: |
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I think so. You can convey the same passion in a different idiom. Kinda like "kickin it up a notch" or - dumbing it down. |
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