while I'm here...

[pantryslut]

This mini-rant (if that’s really what it is) is not directed at anybody in particular. Just so you know.

At WisCon, I was talking to a semi-famous authorly friend of mine, K. She was apologizing to another friend for using a joke of hers in a story without asking permission first.

“Wow,” I said. “That is so ethical of you. I admire that.” Then I laughed. “Because that is so not me.”

I went on to explain: I am like a magpie. If it’s glittery and portable, I will steal it and weave it into my nest. I will have no shame and no remorse about this. None.

I have other writerly friends who follow K.’s example, more or less. They have a standard of ethics around what they do and do not write. Sometimes I admire it, and sometimes I am bewildered by it.

Nevertheless.

Though I am a magpie, and all material that happens around me in my life is fodder for my writing, there’s one thing that really gets under my skin. People who use their Art and their Muse as an excuse to write what they want, act how they want, blow off commitments (except the ones that flatter their Art, of course), and generally act like a flake, or an asshole.

Because Art is a higher calling, dontcha know. One Must Obey The Muse. Besides, life is art and art is life and we should all live as if we were creating art anyway. It’s better, more beautiful, that way.

Bullshit.

It was amarama, on BART earlier this week, who nailed it for me, albeit in a different context. “’It’s a meditation’,” she said with venom. “That’s what [my roommate?] always used to say: ‘washing dishes is a meditation.’”

“It can be a meditation,” I replied. “But even when it isn’t, the dishes need to get done anyway.”

And we both laughed.

Comments

[brooksmoses]

I don't think the problem is "Life is art". The problem is "life is the floor under the easel that you don't care about irrepairably damaging with paint-splatters because it has nothing to with the art". And the other problem is people who seem to think the latter is an instance of the former.

Or perhaps else people who seem to have bought into the "good art tends to shock people, so therefore things that shock people must automatically be good art, and therefore I should be as shocking as possible" fallacy.

Or, in yet other words -- yeah, it's bull.

[postmaudlin.livejournal.com]

Worse yet: people actually *DOING* things they think are, oh, racy so that they can write about them later, on the idea that if they do interesting things, they'll write interesting things.

Sadly, it doesn't work that way. Interesting experiences can happen to mundane, prosaic people. Bad erotica disproves the idea that subject alone will carry a piece.

As far as personal ethics regarding this go, I guess it depends what your motives are. If you're a social-climbing parasite and you write about all the rock bands you gave blowjobs to, well... talk to your lawyer and sell that shizzy. If you're just a parasite, consider taking up painting? If you're writing to titillate a local community but alienate people close to you, that'll work. If you're bored and need to stir up drama, go for it.

None of this is art and lacks, to my way of thinking, integrity.

If you're writing for a national audience decades from now when you'll have left this little podunk pond behind, well, okay, but be sure and change some names and places and the like. And make some damned fine art. Yeah, art.

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

You're welcome to steal from me whatever you want. I am completely without any sense of privacy whatsoever. This I have come to regard as a good thing, but it spooks my friends who have it.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

Like brooksmoses, I don't think the problem is that Life Is Art. But my issue is with the idea that Art is more important than mere life, and that Artistes (gotta have that in French) are superior beings trapped on this tragic earth with boring, soulless mortals who brutalize the Artiste by expecting them to hold a job.

The only way non-artists can redeem their mundane, pathetic little protosouls is to dedicate all their financial and emotional resources to indulging the Artiste. Only if they cook, clean, support, and gratify the Artiste can they find meaning in life. However, all their good works are for naught if they ever dare to expect anything in return, including a simple word of thanks or five minutes per day of civil behavior.

And I'm a writer saying this. I think that doing a certain amount of basic manual labor--housework, for example--is good for writers. Keeps us grounded in realities. I also think that the surly Artiste stereotype is more common among people who are not actually working writers. Most of the writers I've known have been fairly decent and thoughtful people, at least 50 percent of the time. Not a bad average.

Questions for extra credit:

1. Is the "Ode on a Grecian Urn" really worth any number of old ladies?
2. Can good art be made by people consumed with jealousy and contempt?
3. How selfish do you have to be to get decent work done?
4. When do the demands of the work get to trump the demands of life?
5. How can you make room in your life for art while holding down a job and having some kind of social contact with your kids, partners, or friends?

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

The only way non-artists can redeem their mundane, pathetic little protosouls is to dedicate all their financial and emotional resources to indulging the Artiste. Only if they cook, clean, support, and gratify the Artiste can they find meaning in life.

Hey now. I aspire to be a kept woman someday. So I'm not sure I can get behind disparaging this idea much.

However, all their good works are for naught if they ever dare to expect anything in return, including a simple word of thanks or five minutes per day of civil behavior.


Oh. Well, I plan to put out, at least.

[imnotandrei.livejournal.com]

1) That number may be smaller than one, but it still exists.

Oh, you meant *integer* number of old ladies? That's harder.

2) Yes. It may be bitter, twisted, wrathful art, but that's still art.

(More thoughtful answers perhaps to follow when I've had more time to think about it.)

[amarama.livejournal.com]

[Crappy WASP roommate who never did dishes til she was 18]

[nadyalec.livejournal.com]

this is why my journal is called portrait of the artist as a really nice guy.

i aspire to being a socially and politically responsible artist.

you know, you can tell he's a great artist because he tips really well...

[tgeller.livejournal.com]

Word. That attitude is a BIG reason I never did anything with my training after conservatory.

[dnereverri.livejournal.com]

“It can be a meditation,” I replied. “But even when it isn’t, the dishes need to get done anyway.”

Before Enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

After Enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

Or to put it another way, if you do it right, washing the dishes is always a meditation, because it isn't a meditation.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

More or less what I was getting at, from a different angle -- you can't do Life Is Art in a way that neglects the Life part of that equation. It just doesn't work. If you want to live your life as art, you have to accept that you still have to do the dishes.

Which makes me sound like I'm on a housework tirade, and I'm not. It's actually more about the "mundane" aspects of interpersonal relationships -- dishes are just more concrete.

[redbird]

Yes. The problem with "I am an artist and should be exempt from shit" is that it assumes that it's okay to make most people put up with shit.