I spend a lot of time wondering how many oeuvres we will never get to know about because the artists were quiet and got run over by the world, making in bits of down time between their grueling jobs in factories or restaurants, or even more sad - imagining creating the things they wanted to create because their lives didn’t even leave them with enough energy to try.
I think we fight this by microfinancing each other.
Yes, literally all of this. I’ve gotten to know a handful of people just through my day jobs and life who’ve been these gorgeous, secret artists and I remember experiencing grief toward the fact that they’ve given up.
"I remember being in college and saying, 'I think it matters if what you have to say is important,' and my professor immediately asking if I was liberal."
Once I told my dad that I thought everyone should think for themselves and he asked me the same thing. Never knew thinking before you spoke (or thinking period) was a political act 🙃
I love that I work at a small independent bookstore full of books like the ones you want to write, to read. Books put out by small presses by queer, neurodivergent weirdos making strange shit.
It’s what keeps me going. Knowing that there are people who care that we exist. I watch people come in and they’ll ask me what I think they should read, and to some of them I’ll hand the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, or Come Thou Tortoise, or The Convictions of Leonard McKinley. To others searching for poetry I’ll put ‘Love is a Place but You Can’t Live There’s in their hands.
When a writer comes in and tells me, softly, that they are writing something after I’ve set the space for them to open like a dark rose at midnight…I listen. I ask them to tell me when they’ve finished. I offer to read their favourite paragraphs.
Here, it’s easy to forget that there are people who love books, helping the people who write them, by believing in them. By buying them at small readings. By ordering copies from their odd imprints, their small presses.
We have always been here at the fringes.
I love that this is the way. That the mainstream exists, and the streams that break their own ground do too.
I can’t wait to read your book, no matter how it arrives on my bedside table. By carrier pigeon or penguin.
I’m so honoured to have been there, in words, with you. I’m so grateful that you’re out in the world being you, writing furiously with beauty, wrangling the sparkling darkness into tidal pools of literary bioluminescence, lighting the way for others like you.
(It is 4am and my darling anxious child just woke me up afraid he has toncilitus. He doesn’t, it’s a sore throat. But I texted him to let him know I love him, and to thank him for trusting me with his fears. And found the notification for your note, so am replying from literal darkness and residual dream reality.)
…these products were never made for artists…do you really think chris best and hamish care about your art career?…what do you really think they read and write and draw at night…as more vc money lines their pockets what art will they curate?…whose art will matter?…those creators of this app got sad because bill maher didn’t livestream last week…this app is just a sad hbomax ripoff now…
Yeah. Hoo boy. I've shared before where I think we're at here, and because I think the Theory of Reflexivity has some merit, I believe that publicly, it's all going to get way worse before it gets better.
We have internet hucksters preying on our worst tendencies. Social media platforms making everyone depressed and anxious. Mainstream storytelling platforms—books, music, movies, video games, etc.—getting into formulaic, data-driven death spirals. AI making us question the authenticity of everything. And a lack of social networks outside of the online world that once provided many personal stories, inside jokes and family histories.
This is precisely why I think introverts are going to have something important to offer. That's not to say introverts are going to be the new celebrities—whatever comes next might very well be unrecognizable to us—but it's precisely their disdain for this system that others will find relatable.
More and more people are getting tired of it. There's a cultural vacuum being created that, in every time in the past, has led to some kind of diametric opposite coming into fruition. Not a utopia, certainly, but definitely something very different.
I would pay good money to read a post of yours on this topic. I feel so lucky to read your comments lol. But I totally agree. I think my constant bitching will soon die down on the subject — well, eh. lol it’s hard to not constantly circle the drain while also being in the middle of it all. it’s just a lot. so much, really. more than i ever imagined having to deal with.
Yeah, it’s tough for me in terms of my day job. Increasingly I’m speaking a different language there. My peers talk about the now and the up and coming and they’re all so enamored. I keep looking behind us and trying to tell them the false American god of Shiny New Things has never, ever made good on its promises. And their response is always “yeah, but”.
I think it’s possible you keep harping on this issue because it’s massive, and there’s so much to harp on. But a LOT of people are wondering if it’s just them who are feeling this way, so sharing our perspective, especially now, is really important.
What do I do, knowing what I create will never be a top ten bestseller? I doubledown on my eccentric nature and let myself be free. My imagination is unlimited. I write so that kindred misfits do not feel alone. I self published my last poetry book, Beast Body Epic, a collection of long poems published by my near-death health crisis. I carried copies with me. I read at open mics. I have been sharing my work for over 20 years and also when I've had the time and money, I've published those whose voices have been systematically excluded by literary and artistic canons. I have and continue to seek kindred misfits. I think there are many of us, those who have important things to say and to share. My work is driven by whimsy,.exploration and connection with kindred misfits. Survival is tough in such a hard-core capitalist environment but I am working on it, and finding art of others doing likewise energizes me and inspires me. This substack platform does feel like it offers space for us. Finding kindred misfits and sharing and supporting their work is a lifelong labour of love of mine.
At a writing workshop I attended recently, a publisher was talking about how publishing houses are most concerned with how famous you are vs. the quality of your material. And even if you get published by the Big Five, they will only fund significant promotion packages for celebrities. Someone on here was talking about how they have 25,000 twitter followers and that wasn't enough for a publisher. As a musician, I turned down an opportunity to work with a publisher in Nashville because they basically weren't offering me anything and it was clear they were just trying to exploit me. I crave that validation of "making it," but at least right now it seems like we live in a world where you have to do the majority of the promotional work yourself whether or not a publisher is taking 50% (that's what it is for music, I dk what it is for literature). At least with my music, I'm like "I might as well stay indie and keep that 50%"!!!
That is so disheartening. I’m not shocked, just disappointed. Good for you, dude! Honestly, most of the musicians that I listen to on repeat are indie. I appreciate them even more because their art is more raw as well — escaping the corporate reconstruction that typically happens to those mass produced artists. I just wish it wasn’t the way it is. I want good art to be accessible. I think it should be. It’s what we need.
I spend a lot of time wondering how many oeuvres we will never get to know about because the artists were quiet and got run over by the world, making in bits of down time between their grueling jobs in factories or restaurants, or even more sad - imagining creating the things they wanted to create because their lives didn’t even leave them with enough energy to try.
I think we fight this by microfinancing each other.
Yes, literally all of this. I’ve gotten to know a handful of people just through my day jobs and life who’ve been these gorgeous, secret artists and I remember experiencing grief toward the fact that they’ve given up.
"I remember being in college and saying, 'I think it matters if what you have to say is important,' and my professor immediately asking if I was liberal."
Once I told my dad that I thought everyone should think for themselves and he asked me the same thing. Never knew thinking before you spoke (or thinking period) was a political act 🙃
RIGHT. It’s so, very strange.
I love that I work at a small independent bookstore full of books like the ones you want to write, to read. Books put out by small presses by queer, neurodivergent weirdos making strange shit.
It’s what keeps me going. Knowing that there are people who care that we exist. I watch people come in and they’ll ask me what I think they should read, and to some of them I’ll hand the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, or Come Thou Tortoise, or The Convictions of Leonard McKinley. To others searching for poetry I’ll put ‘Love is a Place but You Can’t Live There’s in their hands.
When a writer comes in and tells me, softly, that they are writing something after I’ve set the space for them to open like a dark rose at midnight…I listen. I ask them to tell me when they’ve finished. I offer to read their favourite paragraphs.
Here, it’s easy to forget that there are people who love books, helping the people who write them, by believing in them. By buying them at small readings. By ordering copies from their odd imprints, their small presses.
We have always been here at the fringes.
I love that this is the way. That the mainstream exists, and the streams that break their own ground do too.
I can’t wait to read your book, no matter how it arrives on my bedside table. By carrier pigeon or penguin.
Thank you for writing, and for being riled up.
I read this at a Glass Animals concert while they sang “Pork Soda” and cried. Thank you, Wake. Your life is so beautiful. I’m so glad i’m a part of it
I’m so honoured to have been there, in words, with you. I’m so grateful that you’re out in the world being you, writing furiously with beauty, wrangling the sparkling darkness into tidal pools of literary bioluminescence, lighting the way for others like you.
(It is 4am and my darling anxious child just woke me up afraid he has toncilitus. He doesn’t, it’s a sore throat. But I texted him to let him know I love him, and to thank him for trusting me with his fears. And found the notification for your note, so am replying from literal darkness and residual dream reality.)
…these products were never made for artists…do you really think chris best and hamish care about your art career?…what do you really think they read and write and draw at night…as more vc money lines their pockets what art will they curate?…whose art will matter?…those creators of this app got sad because bill maher didn’t livestream last week…this app is just a sad hbomax ripoff now…
Yeah. Hoo boy. I've shared before where I think we're at here, and because I think the Theory of Reflexivity has some merit, I believe that publicly, it's all going to get way worse before it gets better.
We have internet hucksters preying on our worst tendencies. Social media platforms making everyone depressed and anxious. Mainstream storytelling platforms—books, music, movies, video games, etc.—getting into formulaic, data-driven death spirals. AI making us question the authenticity of everything. And a lack of social networks outside of the online world that once provided many personal stories, inside jokes and family histories.
This is precisely why I think introverts are going to have something important to offer. That's not to say introverts are going to be the new celebrities—whatever comes next might very well be unrecognizable to us—but it's precisely their disdain for this system that others will find relatable.
More and more people are getting tired of it. There's a cultural vacuum being created that, in every time in the past, has led to some kind of diametric opposite coming into fruition. Not a utopia, certainly, but definitely something very different.
I would pay good money to read a post of yours on this topic. I feel so lucky to read your comments lol. But I totally agree. I think my constant bitching will soon die down on the subject — well, eh. lol it’s hard to not constantly circle the drain while also being in the middle of it all. it’s just a lot. so much, really. more than i ever imagined having to deal with.
Yeah, it’s tough for me in terms of my day job. Increasingly I’m speaking a different language there. My peers talk about the now and the up and coming and they’re all so enamored. I keep looking behind us and trying to tell them the false American god of Shiny New Things has never, ever made good on its promises. And their response is always “yeah, but”.
I think it’s possible you keep harping on this issue because it’s massive, and there’s so much to harp on. But a LOT of people are wondering if it’s just them who are feeling this way, so sharing our perspective, especially now, is really important.
…where do the introverts go online?…being online is inherently an outroverted existence…
What do I do, knowing what I create will never be a top ten bestseller? I doubledown on my eccentric nature and let myself be free. My imagination is unlimited. I write so that kindred misfits do not feel alone. I self published my last poetry book, Beast Body Epic, a collection of long poems published by my near-death health crisis. I carried copies with me. I read at open mics. I have been sharing my work for over 20 years and also when I've had the time and money, I've published those whose voices have been systematically excluded by literary and artistic canons. I have and continue to seek kindred misfits. I think there are many of us, those who have important things to say and to share. My work is driven by whimsy,.exploration and connection with kindred misfits. Survival is tough in such a hard-core capitalist environment but I am working on it, and finding art of others doing likewise energizes me and inspires me. This substack platform does feel like it offers space for us. Finding kindred misfits and sharing and supporting their work is a lifelong labour of love of mine.
For lack of a better metaphor, perhaps we live in the "Marvel Comics" era of literature.
At a writing workshop I attended recently, a publisher was talking about how publishing houses are most concerned with how famous you are vs. the quality of your material. And even if you get published by the Big Five, they will only fund significant promotion packages for celebrities. Someone on here was talking about how they have 25,000 twitter followers and that wasn't enough for a publisher. As a musician, I turned down an opportunity to work with a publisher in Nashville because they basically weren't offering me anything and it was clear they were just trying to exploit me. I crave that validation of "making it," but at least right now it seems like we live in a world where you have to do the majority of the promotional work yourself whether or not a publisher is taking 50% (that's what it is for music, I dk what it is for literature). At least with my music, I'm like "I might as well stay indie and keep that 50%"!!!
That is so disheartening. I’m not shocked, just disappointed. Good for you, dude! Honestly, most of the musicians that I listen to on repeat are indie. I appreciate them even more because their art is more raw as well — escaping the corporate reconstruction that typically happens to those mass produced artists. I just wish it wasn’t the way it is. I want good art to be accessible. I think it should be. It’s what we need.