That inveterate stirrer China Mieville suggests that writers should be paid a salary to do their creative work.
He also goes on about the future of the novel, chastises backwards-looking, publishing gloom-mongers, brings haughty literary gatekeepers down a peg or two, and says deep and meaningful things about post-modernism and such, but I was mostly interested in the salary idea.
I quite like it.
Whether modern capitalism is up for it remains doubtful. As China rightly points out, many professions that do the most good for society are hideously undervalued by the present system, though I'm sure this injustice makes perfect sense to those individuals and their hanger-on best friends who benefit most from our modern feudal hierarchy. They'll have some incredibly rational spin-story up their money-stuffed sleeves to explain why it simply must be so.
And appropos modern capitalism and its tendency to mercilessly suck the vibrancy out of people for a buck, here's an interesting piece that I've been meaning to link to for the past week on how all political struggles today amount to a war over time. This reluctant trading of time for money is a something that most writers with day or arvo or night jobs feel keenly, I suspect.
Now, where can I sign up for that salary package?
2 comments:
That article 'War Over Time' is fascinating. It puts into words so many concerns I have about our society.
As a teacher I was caught in the endless round of self-assessments to justify keeping my job, when I just wanted to yell out loud, 'I'm here to stimulate the imaginations of children!'
I agree that almost everyone lives in a state of mild anxiety (or full-on anxiety), and that 'they' have a vested interest in keeping us afraid and unsettled.
Thanks for the link. I'm sending it to my like-minded friends.
I'm glad you found it touched a nerve too. I've been emailing the link to so many people, and they've been forwarding it too, and the response is always the same - that it articulates something that has been bothering and frightening people for a long time.
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