No pictures, please
The poetics of reclusion.
I tend to lean toward the idea that whether a writer is a glory hog or no is dependent primarily on personality and the sort of process that writer needs to produce good work.
If it's inspiring to the writer to have a gaggle of teenagers think him Buddha and follow him around with autograph books, then he pursues fame. If it is destructive to the writer's process to be always in the spotlight, then he lives in a barn for a few days. What?
Of course, writers aren't immune to the draw of fame and attention for its own sake. There's no noble poet fallacy here. Perhaps the attention-seeking writers look a wee bit desperate at times - the poets in any case. Novelists can be Buddha and that's all well and good. I don't hear much about poets' "fan bases." It kind of makes me chuckle. Likewise, a poet retreating from the blazing glare of the media spotlight! O, why don't you leave me be, TMZ, and pay more attention to, I don't know, greasy oil magnates?
I tend to lean toward the idea that whether a writer is a glory hog or no is dependent primarily on personality and the sort of process that writer needs to produce good work.
If it's inspiring to the writer to have a gaggle of teenagers think him Buddha and follow him around with autograph books, then he pursues fame. If it is destructive to the writer's process to be always in the spotlight, then he lives in a barn for a few days. What?
Of course, writers aren't immune to the draw of fame and attention for its own sake. There's no noble poet fallacy here. Perhaps the attention-seeking writers look a wee bit desperate at times - the poets in any case. Novelists can be Buddha and that's all well and good. I don't hear much about poets' "fan bases." It kind of makes me chuckle. Likewise, a poet retreating from the blazing glare of the media spotlight! O, why don't you leave me be, TMZ, and pay more attention to, I don't know, greasy oil magnates?
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