Re: Cap's bad old days :)

blah b b blah (jrovira@juno.com)
Thu, 25 Mar 1999 17:22:41 -0500 (EST) 

Speaking as a person who's been published quite a bit there's nothing
romantic about my views...especially given that in an earlier post I said
writers usually have to prostitute themselves early on to get published.

I've published poetry, short stories, and a good bit of non-fiction.  And
I've even been paid for some of it :)

and GOD do I have some horror stories.  There's nothing scarier than
having something published IN YOUR NAME that you haven't written and
HAVEN'T SEEN AHEAD OF TIME.  I wrote a short piece that was purchased by
an organization, but due to formatting problems they had to toss what I
wrote and the editor wrote something else....but my name was still on it.
 I've written non-fiction commentary in which THE VERY IDEAS PRESENTED
were screwed around with, and THAT was published under my name.  If it
didn't PAY so freaking well I would've SUED the SOBs :)   BOY was I
unhappy :)  

Could you tell? 

When it comes to publishing fiction you have to have a bit of sense.  We
write because we love writing and have something to say.  We publish TO
MAKE MONEY.  And so do book publishers.  It's a business.  If you're
SOOOO GOOOD a writer that you produce innovative art, you're a good
enough writer to write the "tosh" that sells until you've made a name for
yourself and can publish what you want.  Salinger's Sgt. Bilko was a
shameless appeal to the biases of American audiences during WW 2, at
least on one level.  On another it was still Pure Salinger, of course. 

That's the way it works with real genius anyhow.  Salvador Dali did quite
a few fairly imitative, tame paintings before he sold melting clocks. 
His realism was impeccable in his early works.  James Joyce mastered the
mainstream short story and wrote fairly traditional poetry (Pomes
Pennyeach) before writing anything so weird as Ulysses.  

And he couldn't have published Finnegan's Wake before selling that other
stuff, of course.

But yes, there is a lot of genius that falls by the wayside.  Life owes
no one anything, I consider it a privilege to have been published.  But I
sure had to actively promote myself...no one was doing it for me.  That
was my point all along. 

Jim

On Thu, 25 Mar 1999 16:18:28 +1100 Camille Scaysbrook
<verona_beach@geocities.com> writes:
>
>Jim wrote:
>> Talent -- no, genius -- finds a way in any system, and more often 
>than
>> not it's a pretty difficult way.
>
>Yeah ... so what happens to the 90% who fall along the way? Even 
>geniuses
>get sick and tired and need to pay the rent. It's a very 
>over-romanticised
>view of genius for you to take - more and more I realise it's not what 
>you
>know but who; there's so much tosh that gets out there, gets 
>published, and
>somehow finds its way into millions of hands that sometimes I think 
>that
>true talent - that is, originality, danger and innovation - is the 
>direct
>opposite of an advantage.
>
>Camille
>verona_beach@geocities.com
>@ THE ARTS HOLE http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Theater/6442
>@ THE INVERTED FOREST http://www.angelfire.com/pa/invertedforest
>

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