Director’s Cut
Our times are not getting less extraordinary. Or insane. And once again, reading the news—and defying the deep pockets that work ceaselessly to sustain a dysfunctional status quo—one must ask: what can art do to address any of this? And the answer, as ever, is: nothing; everything.
Actual change requires actual people actually getting involved. But our best storytellers remind us that narrative is everything, and inspiration usually precedes engagement.
The only thing worse than cynicism is apathy, and the only thing worse than apathy is aggression—and worst of all is cupidity. (Elon Musk is a miracle of sorts in that he manages to combine all of these awful qualities; a repugnant waste of potential.)
It’s possible, if not probable that our digital toys have provided us with everything but perspective, making us increasingly oblivious to the realities of people we’re not familiar with. This might help explain a country, like ours, with unlimited access to all sorts of content being as polarized (politically, psychologically, personally) as any time in recent memory.
Technology and the times we live in ensure that art is changing and evolving; if it doesn’t, it—and the people who make it—will be outdated and irrelevant. This has always been the case.
I continue to find comfort in the fact that, despite increased competition for some sliver of space in our info-overload creative landscape, necessary and otherwise marginalized voices have a fighting chance of being heard.
That said, I still shudder with disdain recalling the veteran literary agent, during a panel I recently moderated, blithely insisting that good writing gets recognized, and artists need only concentrate on doing the work. This attitude reeks of entitlement and arrogance: it was misguided decades ago; to hear it in the 21st Century only proves there’s a great deal of work still to be done.
No artist today, even a privileged one handed every opportunity, can avoid multitasking; hustle is the new normal.
It’s not that, in 2022, old-fashioned love poems are a luxury (they are); rather, it’s recognizing the fact that poems advocating for justice and awareness are love poems.
Still true: writing skills will facilitate any number of career paths. This does not mean you will get paid to write, but the ability to communicate effectively remains a superpower in corporate America.
There’s a direct correlation between our society’s increasingly dire empathy gap and the ceaseless deprecation of Humanities degrees.
We’re grappling more than ever with how to assess brilliant work by dishonorable men. George Saunders, then, presents the closest thing we have to a grand slam: arguably the best writer of his generation, and by all accounts, one of the nicest, and most decent. There’s fortunately no shortage of writers whose prose, or work ethic, or versatility (etc.) one can admire and emulate, even if they are pigs in their private lives. Saunders is rare—and refreshing—proof that nice guys occasionally finish first. I read (and re-read) Saunders hoping it helps make me a better writer; more importantly, I read him and learn how to be a better person. (Here he is, interacting in his inimitable way with readers, and offering the guidance he was born to provide.)
Don’t be cynical: find a charity you can feel good about supporting, endorse the efforts of our great artists, tell your parents you love them, appreciate—and savor—the friends who always have your back. Be good to strangers and be better to yourself: you deserve it.
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