On Art and “Selling Out”
I have always enjoyed writing. I love telling stories in general and in an ideal world, I would love to write books for children. However, we do not live in an ideal world. Over the years, I have come to terms with the fact that writing is not something that necessarily guarantees you a steady paycheck or job. You have to go through a lot of effort, and there is a HUGE chance that what you write won’t get picked up for publishing and you won’t make any money off of your hard work. And so I decided that taking all of this into account, children’s book author was not a reasonable career to attempt. So I spent some time pondering what I could possibly do with my life instead where I could still be around what I love, but have a possibility towards a more steady living. Various things came to mind, such as publishing (whether it be editing, marketing, agent, or whatever), literary magazines, teaching, etc.
I was discussing this with an acquaintance the other day and they told me that choosing a career path involving literature that wasn’t directly writing was “selling out.” This annoyed me greatly for two main reasons.
1) I don’t believe in selling out as a concept. People often say that bands, artists, writers sell out when they sign off rights for their books to be turned into movies or when they change up their style to potentially be more marketable. But unless you’re doing something that goes against your very morals or have changed to something you don’t enjoy, how is that a bad thing? I remember one time when I watched one of those “Behind the Music” specials on Genesis with my dad. When they started changing their sound towards pop, they were accused of “selling out.” But, as one of the band members pointed out, they were still enjoying it. They liked their music, it was good, and they felt it was a natural progression. How is that selling out? To me, it isn’t. To me, that’s just change. And change is GOOD AND NECESSARY FOR LIFE.
2) I have some fairly serious health problems that will never, ever go away. I will be on certain medications for the rest of my life. I need yearly checkups with various doctors and regular tests such MRIs, EEGs, and CT scans. All of these things are VERY expensive. I have been very lucky that my dad’s job offers really good health care so that all my medical needs have been taken care of. But I won’t be able to stay on my parent’s health care forever. And I need to guarantee that I can pay for these things that are keeping me healthy. There is no guarantee of health care or enough money to pay for the equivalent if you are living as an artist of any kind because you are not guaranteed work. I refuse to apologize because I care more about my health and maintaining a stable lifestyle in general more than I care about sharing my stories with the world.
It’s okay for some things to end up being hobbies, or to make your work more marketable, or to do take your talents and do something non-traditional with them in order to maintain a steady lifestyle. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that unless you are defying your own personal values. And by deciding to take my love of literature and do something with it besides just writing, I am not going against my values. I am just deciding to do something different, and maybe even better for me personally.
There is more to art than just the artist.
(Source: elisefailin)
Sherlock shoes made for me by my friend Rachel. Possibly the greatest article of clothing I currently own. I needed to share them with the internet.
You can find more of her amazing art at her deviantart account: thevictims11.deviantart.com
