Culturally we have an obsession with money. If you take a classroom of young kids, five or six years old, and ask them if they can draw, they’ll all say yes. Ask “Who’s a dancer?” and they’ll all jump up and start dancing. If you ask the same group the same questions every year for the next five years, by the end it’s a safe bet that no-one will agree, because they’ve been conditioned to believe that money defines identity. Until someone will pay you for being artistic, your skills are meaningless.
I don’t disagree with your premise that too many people pretend to have skills they do not, and give themselves undeserved titles. I just disagree with your criteria for determining worthiness. I’ve written professionally, but in my career so far I’ve been paid less than $500 for my words, discounting the salary I’m currently drawing. I guess that I’m just another nobody, spoiling the designation for the hard-working and commercially successful Tom Clancy’s of the world.
I’m not an aspiring writer, because I don’t have the goal of publishing a novel some day. I am happy reaching my limited audience through my site. Does my lack of financial ambition render me unsuited for the noble profession of “author”?
I guess I’ll just go back to calling myself an uneducated college dropout with delusions of grandeur. I wouldn’t want to call myself a writer and spoil the fun for anyone else.
[And of course I don’t intend you to take any of the preceding personally, Jodi; you know I love you.]
jodi
16.Aug.02 at 2:00 pm
so are you a writer or are you someone who writes? i don’t think it’s the same thing. and so, following your argument, is everyone who goes out to a dance club on the weekend a dancer? is everyone with a blog a writer?
It depends on how you want to define your terms. If you define “dancer” as “a person who dances,” then yes. If we want to limit the term to “a person who is paid money to dance,” then no. Sadly, it seems that Emily Dickinson was never a writer, nor was John Kennedy O’Toole, as neither was published before death.
I take issue with the equation “cash = status.” The world has enough trouble keeping artistic integrity and profit motice apart; do we need to define our terms so that only those serving the lowest common denominator can be artists?
As for me, it doesn’t matter what I call myself; I know what I am. I’ll let others call me what they like, if it makes them happy.
UH
16.Aug.02 at 6:06 pm
mkh, you are da man. Or da woman, since I have no idea who you are.
i should have looked here before posting the comment i made under “yeah, so i’m a lawyer.” i agree with mkh in the matter.
so someone fancies him or herself a writer. is he or she advertising writing services and scamming people out of money like a “lawyer” with an internet diploma? i might have a problem with that. but a person who wants to say that he or she is a writer meaning in the general sense that he or she is an artist and creates (in whatever small way, for whatever audience), then so be it! i just don’t see what harm there is.
excuse me while i wax idealistic, but i think many might call themselves writers in the sense that they feel some vague (and, admittedly, inadequately demonstrated) inner writing sprit? can one claim to be a writer because he or she identifies (in whatever way) with what drives great writers–wanting to say something beautifully, wanting to tell a story? (i’m guessing. i’m not one of these great writers, so i suppose i can’t claim to know what drives them.)
so maybe said “writer” needs more practice. maybe this person just isn’t “there” yet. can a man call himself gay if he has feelings for the same sex, identifies with gays in a powerful way but has never had sex with another man? can a seventeen year-old call herself a democrat even though she is too young to actually vote?
or would this discredit the “real” gay men and democrats out there?
[most importantly, am i making sense?]
it’s late and i don’t know where this is coming from (on my part). i’m not trying to offend you or say that your opinion isn’t valid. i’m just throwing this out as another way of viewing the situation.
so yeah… that’s what i have to say on the matter.
Thomas
19.Aug.02 at 4:00 pm
mkh has a very valid point, however the person who dances on the weekends in a club has an occupation. Perhaps it’s a police officer, maybe it’s a doctor, maybe it’s CEO, or maybe it’s a drug dealer. They all may indeed be a dancer in their soul, have it be their driving passion. But when someone gets shot in that club, the cop tries to bust the shooter, the doctor tries to save the victim, the CEO struggles for her life and the drug dealer is a scumbag with GSR on his fingers. Does the officer keep dancing, refusing to stop because he’s “not at work, man!”? Does the doctor keep his skills to himself because he “just gotta dance!”? Does the drug dealer ignore the fat wallet on the CEO because he loves the nightlife and he wants to boogie?
What we do is big part of us as who we are; I’m a computer guru. I fix computer problems. Even out of work, that’s what I do. But, you ask, who am I really? I’m the last, best hope for the salvation of the whole of humanity, but that’s besides the point.
The point is that unless you’re completely selling your soul to make money and are completely miserable, meaning you haven’t even a single modicum of enjoyment out of your job, then what you do certainly reflects on you. It’s your occupation. It’s not about money, it’s about what you do with your time on earth.
A man who nails one board is not a carpenter; A man who tightens one pipe is not a plumber; A man who catches one fish is not a fisherman… But just try sucking one cock…
Well, I’m here to voice a little dissent.
Culturally we have an obsession with money. If you take a classroom of young kids, five or six years old, and ask them if they can draw, they’ll all say yes. Ask “Who’s a dancer?” and they’ll all jump up and start dancing. If you ask the same group the same questions every year for the next five years, by the end it’s a safe bet that no-one will agree, because they’ve been conditioned to believe that money defines identity. Until someone will pay you for being artistic, your skills are meaningless.
I don’t disagree with your premise that too many people pretend to have skills they do not, and give themselves undeserved titles. I just disagree with your criteria for determining worthiness. I’ve written professionally, but in my career so far I’ve been paid less than $500 for my words, discounting the salary I’m currently drawing. I guess that I’m just another nobody, spoiling the designation for the hard-working and commercially successful Tom Clancy’s of the world.
I’m not an aspiring writer, because I don’t have the goal of publishing a novel some day. I am happy reaching my limited audience through my site. Does my lack of financial ambition render me unsuited for the noble profession of “author”?
I guess I’ll just go back to calling myself an uneducated college dropout with delusions of grandeur. I wouldn’t want to call myself a writer and spoil the fun for anyone else.
[And of course I don’t intend you to take any of the preceding personally, Jodi; you know I love you.]
so are you a writer or are you someone who writes? i don’t think it’s the same thing. and so, following your argument, is everyone who goes out to a dance club on the weekend a dancer? is everyone with a blog a writer?
It depends on how you want to define your terms. If you define “dancer” as “a person who dances,” then yes. If we want to limit the term to “a person who is paid money to dance,” then no. Sadly, it seems that Emily Dickinson was never a writer, nor was John Kennedy O’Toole, as neither was published before death.
I take issue with the equation “cash = status.” The world has enough trouble keeping artistic integrity and profit motice apart; do we need to define our terms so that only those serving the lowest common denominator can be artists?
As for me, it doesn’t matter what I call myself; I know what I am. I’ll let others call me what they like, if it makes them happy.
mkh, you are da man. Or da woman, since I have no idea who you are.
i should have looked here before posting the comment i made under “yeah, so i’m a lawyer.” i agree with mkh in the matter.
so someone fancies him or herself a writer. is he or she advertising writing services and scamming people out of money like a “lawyer” with an internet diploma? i might have a problem with that. but a person who wants to say that he or she is a writer meaning in the general sense that he or she is an artist and creates (in whatever small way, for whatever audience), then so be it! i just don’t see what harm there is.
excuse me while i wax idealistic, but i think many might call themselves writers in the sense that they feel some vague (and, admittedly, inadequately demonstrated) inner writing sprit? can one claim to be a writer because he or she identifies (in whatever way) with what drives great writers–wanting to say something beautifully, wanting to tell a story? (i’m guessing. i’m not one of these great writers, so i suppose i can’t claim to know what drives them.)
so maybe said “writer” needs more practice. maybe this person just isn’t “there” yet. can a man call himself gay if he has feelings for the same sex, identifies with gays in a powerful way but has never had sex with another man? can a seventeen year-old call herself a democrat even though she is too young to actually vote?
or would this discredit the “real” gay men and democrats out there?
[most importantly, am i making sense?]
it’s late and i don’t know where this is coming from (on my part). i’m not trying to offend you or say that your opinion isn’t valid. i’m just throwing this out as another way of viewing the situation.
so yeah… that’s what i have to say on the matter.
mkh has a very valid point, however the person who dances on the weekends in a club has an occupation. Perhaps it’s a police officer, maybe it’s a doctor, maybe it’s CEO, or maybe it’s a drug dealer. They all may indeed be a dancer in their soul, have it be their driving passion. But when someone gets shot in that club, the cop tries to bust the shooter, the doctor tries to save the victim, the CEO struggles for her life and the drug dealer is a scumbag with GSR on his fingers. Does the officer keep dancing, refusing to stop because he’s “not at work, man!”? Does the doctor keep his skills to himself because he “just gotta dance!”? Does the drug dealer ignore the fat wallet on the CEO because he loves the nightlife and he wants to boogie?
What we do is big part of us as who we are; I’m a computer guru. I fix computer problems. Even out of work, that’s what I do. But, you ask, who am I really? I’m the last, best hope for the salvation of the whole of humanity, but that’s besides the point.
The point is that unless you’re completely selling your soul to make money and are completely miserable, meaning you haven’t even a single modicum of enjoyment out of your job, then what you do certainly reflects on you. It’s your occupation. It’s not about money, it’s about what you do with your time on earth.
A man who nails one board is not a carpenter; A man who tightens one pipe is not a plumber; A man who catches one fish is not a fisherman… But just try sucking one cock…
(possibly the last post I’ll ever make on a blog)
simply awesome!