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Why do we have this uncritical reverence for the published writer? Why
does the simple fact of publication suddenly make a person, hitherto
almost derided, now a proper object of our admiration, a repository of
special and important knowledge about the human condition? And more
interestingly, what effect does this shift from derision to reverence
have on the author and his work, and on literary fiction in general?
Every year, I teach creative writing to just a couple of students. These
are people in their mid-twenties in a British post-graduate course who
come to me in Italy as part of an exchange program. The prospect of
publication, the urgent need, as they see it, to publish as soon as
possible, colors everything they do. Often they will drop an interesting
line of exploration, something they have been working on, because they
feel compelled to produce something that looks more “publishable,” which
is to say, commercial. It will be hard for those who have never suffered
this obsession to appreciate how all-conditioning and all-consuming it
can be. These ambitious young people set deadlines for themselves. When
the deadlines aren’t met their self-esteem plummets; a growing
bitterness with the crassness of modern culture and the mercenary
nature, as they perceive it, of publishers and editors barely disguises
a crushing sense of personal failure.
But we’re all aware of the woes of the wannabe. Less publicized is how
the same mentality still feeds the world of fiction on the other side of
the divide. For the day comes when wannabes, or at least a small
percentage of them, are published. The letter, or phone call, or email
arrives. In an instant life is changed. All at once you’re being
listened to with attention, you’re on stage at literary festivals,
you’re under the spotlight at evening readings, being invited to be wise
and solemn, to condemn this and applaud that, to speak of your next
novel as a project of considerable significance, or indeed to
pontificate on the future of the novel in general, or the future of
civilization.
full: http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/jan/11/writing-to-win/
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