The image of a struggling artist is a powerful one in Western culture. Many people believe it is an artist’s lot to starve, and more importantly that depravation is an important part of the creative process. In this view, great art has a life of its own that comes from the birthing pains of anguish. An artist is must suffer to create works that will endure, because great art is born from torment and strife.
What a load of horseshit.
Many writers have influenced how I write. Vonnegut taught me about perspective, Hesse taught me character development. M�rquez taught me the importance of painting the reader into the moment. Dialogue is trickier, because my sense of it came from someone I don’t know all that well. What I can say is that it came from “The Rockford Files”.
I admit it, I’m something of a perma-bear when it comes to the stock market. I believe that any time you put your money into something you cannot see, there is the potential for abuse. Multiply that by hundreds of millions of people investing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and eventually there will have to be an enormous scandal.
I’ve been involved with a number of discussions on the publishing industry and what it means for writers lately. They’ve been tough fights with writers and people from the industry getting quite emotional. I’d like to do my best to discuss the problem without getting carried away.
Last Friday, the Fed made $35 billion available to large investment banks to make overnight, low interest loans. This is a direct injection of cash into the investment world, and something just short of a sign of panic. The last time this was done was immediately after 9/11.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 