A Source of Shame, Part 3
Dec. 23rd, 2021 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI’m still trying to get to the heart of what I want to say, but it’s difficult to articulate.
Like, I’m not trying to say that the American artists I’ve tried to work with are shitty and entitled people. You can’t really know people you’re only acquaintances with, of course, but I don’t go out of my way to be friendly with shitty and entitled people. After learning from some tough experiences, I also have enough sense not to work with people younger than their mid-twenties who are still operating with a student mindset. (Not that there’s anything wrong with a student mindset, but my expectations for my colleagues are different than my expectations for my students.)
Rather, I think the shame of accepting money and then not doing the work is almost nonexistent, whereas the shame of working on a commissioned project that isn’t immediately successful is a major concern. Or at least it is for American artists, I guess.
If I had to pinpoint the source of this shame, I think it’s the expectation that everyone has to be an immediate success right out of the box. When I try to explain my situation to people who aren’t down here in the trenches with me, they’re inevitably like, “But isn’t [extremely famous person] successful?” And the truth is that of course [extremely famous person] is successful, but they were in a different place ten to twenty years ago, and now they have experience, connections, resources, and a support staff. If you look at the work they were putting out at the start of their careers, it usually isn’t that great!
Part of any healthy creative industry is the willingness of publishers to take a chance on early-career people who aren’t necessarily producing A Profound Work of Staggering Genius. It’s also important not to close the door on voices that are “different,” and not in a shiny branded sense of “diversity,” but really and truly coming from a different perspective (and therefore telling stories in a way that may not be “perfect” according to accepted standards). Even five years ago, there still used to be room for people who were in, say, the top 10%, but now you have to be in the top 10% of the top 1%.
So what I want to say is that, for a lot of creative people, this extreme competitiveness is so intense that like, if the project you’re working on isn’t in the top 10% of the top 1%, what’s even the point?
And I’m not saying this to be angsty or to fish for validation or anything. It’s just the reality of the situation as it currently stands, and it’s not great.
Like, I’m not trying to say that the American artists I’ve tried to work with are shitty and entitled people. You can’t really know people you’re only acquaintances with, of course, but I don’t go out of my way to be friendly with shitty and entitled people. After learning from some tough experiences, I also have enough sense not to work with people younger than their mid-twenties who are still operating with a student mindset. (Not that there’s anything wrong with a student mindset, but my expectations for my colleagues are different than my expectations for my students.)
Rather, I think the shame of accepting money and then not doing the work is almost nonexistent, whereas the shame of working on a commissioned project that isn’t immediately successful is a major concern. Or at least it is for American artists, I guess.
If I had to pinpoint the source of this shame, I think it’s the expectation that everyone has to be an immediate success right out of the box. When I try to explain my situation to people who aren’t down here in the trenches with me, they’re inevitably like, “But isn’t [extremely famous person] successful?” And the truth is that of course [extremely famous person] is successful, but they were in a different place ten to twenty years ago, and now they have experience, connections, resources, and a support staff. If you look at the work they were putting out at the start of their careers, it usually isn’t that great!
Part of any healthy creative industry is the willingness of publishers to take a chance on early-career people who aren’t necessarily producing A Profound Work of Staggering Genius. It’s also important not to close the door on voices that are “different,” and not in a shiny branded sense of “diversity,” but really and truly coming from a different perspective (and therefore telling stories in a way that may not be “perfect” according to accepted standards). Even five years ago, there still used to be room for people who were in, say, the top 10%, but now you have to be in the top 10% of the top 1%.
So what I want to say is that, for a lot of creative people, this extreme competitiveness is so intense that like, if the project you’re working on isn’t in the top 10% of the top 1%, what’s even the point?
And I’m not saying this to be angsty or to fish for validation or anything. It’s just the reality of the situation as it currently stands, and it’s not great.
