Monetary Report: Week 20
This would have to be one of my best weeks. I sold quite a few books, and a magazine paid me for one of my short stories that they published. The magazine is based in Canada, but that north land money is currently worth almost as much as U.S. money. They paid me twenty dollars Canadian, which worked out to about $19.21 -- or something like that.
In any case, my total for this week was $34.28 -- which brings my total profits for the year to . . .
$732.49.
On another note, I had a thought about literature. I'm starting to doubt that a piece of literature can really change a person's life. But, it can change a moment in a person's life . . . or change them for a day or even a week. The resonance of a good poem or short story or even a novel only lasts so long, but it does have a duration. It can make us see the world in a different way for a short time and even make us better at living. Then, it wears off, we go back to our ruts . . . we forget.
Well, we forget the various lessons or messages. Or, the lessons and messages become platitudes and we forget the emotion that made the messages so True for us.
But, if we're lucky, what we don't forget is the experience of reading something powerful. And, hopefully, we seek it out again. Either we reread that which has touched us, or we find new texts to momentarily enlighten us. But, as readers, if we choose to live in continued moments of momentary enlightenment, then our lives can be changed permanently. I think.
I think of this only because I reread the short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin. It gets me every time. I live differently for a short time after reading it. I'm a better person under its limited influence.
In any case, my total for this week was $34.28 -- which brings my total profits for the year to . . .
$732.49.
On another note, I had a thought about literature. I'm starting to doubt that a piece of literature can really change a person's life. But, it can change a moment in a person's life . . . or change them for a day or even a week. The resonance of a good poem or short story or even a novel only lasts so long, but it does have a duration. It can make us see the world in a different way for a short time and even make us better at living. Then, it wears off, we go back to our ruts . . . we forget.
Well, we forget the various lessons or messages. Or, the lessons and messages become platitudes and we forget the emotion that made the messages so True for us.
But, if we're lucky, what we don't forget is the experience of reading something powerful. And, hopefully, we seek it out again. Either we reread that which has touched us, or we find new texts to momentarily enlighten us. But, as readers, if we choose to live in continued moments of momentary enlightenment, then our lives can be changed permanently. I think.
I think of this only because I reread the short story "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin. It gets me every time. I live differently for a short time after reading it. I'm a better person under its limited influence.
posted by Jeff Vande Zande at 8:06 PM
7 Comments:
I had a long comment written but it was lost. Basically it said I think you're right on about literature not changing someone's life with one poem or story (though I'm sure there are rare exceptions), and that an active constant engagement with literature is most likely to effect real change. Something like that. Good post, man.
Thanks, Josh.
One individual piece might not have a lasting effect, but I would argue that EVERYTHING you read sticks with you, and that at some basic level, people that read literature do enjoy a permanent benefit.
Some books affect us more than others, too, and certainly the books in your top 10 list still resonate enough in your life that you'd have to admit some sort of lasting effect, yes?
Bret
Bret,
I think there is merit to what you say, too.
But, reading constantly, and revisiting favorites, has (I think) a better chance of truly changing a person.
I think of Alyosha from Brothers Karamazov. What a good person. I remember wanting to be more like him -- though I can't fully remember why.
So, am I changed by BK -- or do I just remember it as this powerful book I read that had an impact that I no longer feel.
It's like this book of Zen stories Josh and I have been reading. If you read the stories (there are 101) constantly -- 3 each day over and over and over again for your entire life -- you would simply be better at living I would have to think.
The book is Zen Flesh, Zen Bones.
I remember being changed by each little koan as I read it, but the change wasn't permanent -- other than the permanence of my remembering that it was a book worth revisiting.
If that makes sense.
Not to be a contrarian, or perhaps to be exactly that, but I'd say literature has the potential to not only change a life for the better, but perhaps for the worst too. I can't help by think of Spicer's last words: "My vocabulary did this to me."
Hmmm, I think you're taking a fairly narrow view of literature here. What about the Bible, the Torah, the I Ching, the Upanishads, the etc. etc. I'm not getting into any argument about HOW they are read, but these are works of literature which have long-standing histories of guidance and continue to influence people's lives. And there are those whose entire lives are transcendent into these literatures. They are stories - great epic poems - but stories and literature nonetheless. The are also the basis of the end of many lives through acts of merciless violence and self-inflicted torture.
On another note, it seems ironic that you call out the fleeting nature of literature's impact in the same post in which you record your monetary toll. I'm not sure yet what this says, on what side of the argument such coinciding thoughts may fall... Is it all about needing to get something out of it all? Does literature and the experience of reading it need to produce some tangible result?
I'll end as I began: Hmmm...
Gina,
I agree . . . literature can have negative effects, too.
Denise,
I guess my point was that a one-shot exposure to literature probably has little impact. I think the Bible, the Torah, and other holy texts have an impact because people get continuous exposure to the texts. They read and reread and reread, which was my point. It probably takes continuous exposure to make change.
As to my monetary stuff . . . well, I was just curious how much money a D-list writer like myself makes in a year. So, my year-long project is to report how much I make each week. Next year, the reports will end.
Post a Comment
<< Home