Artistic Integrity

Image credit: Peter Mazurek

It's weird for me to write two blog posts in one day since I usually post seldom and sporadically, but receiving constructive criticism for The Newfangled World has got me thinking about the struggles artists have between being true to themselves and making a living. That sounds really cheesy to me, but let me explain what I'm talking about. The main reason I submitted my story to Leading Edge wasn't to get published, although that would've been great, of course. The main reason was because I'm not satisfied with the story, and I was hoping they could help me make it better. Oddly, even though it was intimidating for me to write the story in the first place, it's much, much more intimidating to me to figure out how to go back and make it better. Unfortunately, the criticism I received doesn't seem very helpful. Maybe I'm just too connected to more story, maybe it's too personal, but their suggestions seemed, for the most part, kind of out there. I'll have to read it over again, but the characterization of Malcolm Lee as an egoist seems so weird to me. The main criticism I understand is the scene with Malcolm's family. I'm very torn about that scene because it does seem out of place and break up the story, but overall, I feel like it's important to have a scene to establish Malcolm's love for his family. So I may end up changing it, but I do want to keep a scene with his family.

One of the big problems I run into is that I care more about how I feel about my creations than I care about how other people feel about them. Yeah, it's great when other people seem to like them, and I love that, but whether or not I like what I make is more important to me. That's a bad attitude for anyone who wants to share what they create.

Along the same lines is this article about one of my favorite bands. You don't have to read the whole thing, but basically, Fictionist was signed by a major label, and they now have to struggle between what they want and what the label wants. The sad truth is that if an artist wants to be "successful," they have to be willing to do what the people with money want. Art, although wonderful and inspiring, is pretty much useless. If an artist wishes to make a living with what he creates, he has to get paid by someone. This forces artists to compromise between created art they like versus creating art that makes money. That's a hard decision, and I'm glad I haven't reached the point where I've had to make a choice like that.

I've also been thinking about those who make their living as critics. I criticize things a lot, but for me, it's so that I know what I like and I what I value. I like to discuss criticisms with others, but I try not to put others down for what they've created; I just want to establish what worked for me and what didn't work. What I've begun to realize is that it's much easier to criticize than to create. Take movies, for example. Hundreds and hundreds of hours go into creating a movie, and it takes a film critic just a few hours to tear it apart. It seems sad to make a living as a critic. I imagine that it's much more fulfilling to create than critique. This is not to demean critics because I'm as much a critic as anybody, but it's just something I've been thinking about.

Anyway, this all feels pretty ramble-y to me, and I'm sure how much sense it makes, but one of my favorite parts of a blog is the therapeutic effect it has. It feels good to get things off my chest. I usually like to have a moral to my posts, but I'm not sure what the moral to this post is. It's better and harder to create than critique is a good one for the last paragraph, but it doesn't really fit into everything before it. I'd like to say be true to yourself and don't care what other people think, but I think it's important to care what other people think. So I guess I'll leave it up to you to take whatever moral you want from this.