Oct. 18: Resiliency in a digital world
I remember when Beavis and Butthead was one of the most
popular cartoons on TV. Created by one Mike Judge, it was a
crudely animated show that lampooned the worship of stupidity.
The titular characters were teenaged metal heads who had no
ambition, no common sense, and no friends besides each
other. They spent their lives making fun of music videos and
being ambivalent about pretty much everything.
I imagine Disney animators saw it and wanted to rip their hearts out.
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I am an aspiring author. My friend, Joe, is a successful novelist who is currently making a killing thanks to the sudden popularity of electronically published books. He’s famous for eschewing traditional publishing and is a solid convert to the e-pub world.
I am happy for my friend but I am worried about the direction that e-pub may be taking us. I’m sorry but I just don’t think “a funy story about how I got lade and smokd a lot of doap in high scool” just doesn’t deserve to be listed alongside Moby Dick.
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Back in the mid 90s, when it became increasingly obvious that David Copperfield wasn’t going to put out another television special anytime soon, my magician friends and I wondered if there would ever be another Copperfield. Would there ever be another illusionist charismatic enough to commandeer such a lion’s share of the television viewing audience.
We asked this question in an era when cable television was relatively new and the internet was only used by high ranking military people. It was an era when there were only three big networks. The Arts & Entertainment channel was airing Masterpiece Theatre and Law & Order instead of crap like Toddlers & Tiaras.
Now we are in the era of Criss Angel and youtube. Go online and you can not just see everything Copperfield has ever done, you can also view exposes of everything he’s done.
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I have a book of writing tips by the late Western writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, AB Guthrie Jr. One of the things he says is: “Good enough is not good enough. The very best you can do is maybe good enough.”
In Philip Roth’s novel The Ghost Writer, the young author Nathan Zuckerman is meeting his idol, one EI Lonoff. The elder writer describes his working process. He writes one sentence and then spends a whole morning dickering with it. Then he has lunch. Then he composes another sentence and spends the afternoon dickering with that one too. Then the day is over.
Me? I write one of these notes every day and I publish it, thanks to the digital world.
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A critic once told me that I’m a lousy writer, at least as far as this blog is concerned. He’s right, I suppose. Pretty much everything on this blog is a first draft. When I review my earlier posts, I cringe. I see spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and sentences that just scream to be re-arranged. I am reminded of what EB White said everytime he submitted a column to New York. “It could be better.”
-
I don’t think I’m going to carry the rotating pineapple into 2015. It’s been a fun challenge but I have too much on my plate now for this sort of creative commitment. I have a toddler son and more serious works I want to concentrate on.
Besides, I’m not getting swamped with love letters.
-
One of the differences between the arts and athletics is that in the arts, the people with the most talent are not always rewarded. Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan are rich today because they dominated their respective sports. The reason no one touched them is that no one could.
I know a couple of people who graduated from the National Theatre School, one of my country’s most prestigious theatrical institutions. If they starred in a movie, fewer people would see it than something starring Pamela Anderson or Paris Hilton.
Trust me, if I could play hockey like Jarome Iginla, I wouldn’t be sitting where I am right now. If I could act better than Paris Hilton (and you know what? I think I probably can) then I would definitely still be sitting here – eating chicken wings and wondering if the Roughriders are going to lose tomorrow (probably.)
Moral: When it comes to the arts, being successful is like winning the lottery.
I imagine Disney animators saw it and wanted to rip their hearts out.
-
I am an aspiring author. My friend, Joe, is a successful novelist who is currently making a killing thanks to the sudden popularity of electronically published books. He’s famous for eschewing traditional publishing and is a solid convert to the e-pub world.
I am happy for my friend but I am worried about the direction that e-pub may be taking us. I’m sorry but I just don’t think “a funy story about how I got lade and smokd a lot of doap in high scool” just doesn’t deserve to be listed alongside Moby Dick.
-
Back in the mid 90s, when it became increasingly obvious that David Copperfield wasn’t going to put out another television special anytime soon, my magician friends and I wondered if there would ever be another Copperfield. Would there ever be another illusionist charismatic enough to commandeer such a lion’s share of the television viewing audience.
We asked this question in an era when cable television was relatively new and the internet was only used by high ranking military people. It was an era when there were only three big networks. The Arts & Entertainment channel was airing Masterpiece Theatre and Law & Order instead of crap like Toddlers & Tiaras.
Now we are in the era of Criss Angel and youtube. Go online and you can not just see everything Copperfield has ever done, you can also view exposes of everything he’s done.
-
I have a book of writing tips by the late Western writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, AB Guthrie Jr. One of the things he says is: “Good enough is not good enough. The very best you can do is maybe good enough.”
In Philip Roth’s novel The Ghost Writer, the young author Nathan Zuckerman is meeting his idol, one EI Lonoff. The elder writer describes his working process. He writes one sentence and then spends a whole morning dickering with it. Then he has lunch. Then he composes another sentence and spends the afternoon dickering with that one too. Then the day is over.
Me? I write one of these notes every day and I publish it, thanks to the digital world.
-
A critic once told me that I’m a lousy writer, at least as far as this blog is concerned. He’s right, I suppose. Pretty much everything on this blog is a first draft. When I review my earlier posts, I cringe. I see spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and sentences that just scream to be re-arranged. I am reminded of what EB White said everytime he submitted a column to New York. “It could be better.”
-
I don’t think I’m going to carry the rotating pineapple into 2015. It’s been a fun challenge but I have too much on my plate now for this sort of creative commitment. I have a toddler son and more serious works I want to concentrate on.
Besides, I’m not getting swamped with love letters.
-
One of the differences between the arts and athletics is that in the arts, the people with the most talent are not always rewarded. Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan are rich today because they dominated their respective sports. The reason no one touched them is that no one could.
I know a couple of people who graduated from the National Theatre School, one of my country’s most prestigious theatrical institutions. If they starred in a movie, fewer people would see it than something starring Pamela Anderson or Paris Hilton.
Trust me, if I could play hockey like Jarome Iginla, I wouldn’t be sitting where I am right now. If I could act better than Paris Hilton (and you know what? I think I probably can) then I would definitely still be sitting here – eating chicken wings and wondering if the Roughriders are going to lose tomorrow (probably.)
Moral: When it comes to the arts, being successful is like winning the lottery.
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