Re: Publication
jason varsoke (jjv@caesun.msd.ray.com)
Tue, 05 Oct 1999 13:39:47 -0400 (EDT)
On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, citycabn wrote:
> On October 1, Scottie, in part, wrote:
>
> "Publication--which we all long for--is, finally, irrelevant."
>
> I image JDS, when he ran his eyes over that, nodded his head. More than
> once.
>
> And a quote from the Rilke translator and scholar, J.B. Leishman:
>
> "One of the most remarkable facts about the last twenty years or so of
> Rilke's life is that publication seems to have become more and more
> indifferent, or even irrelevant, to him, as though all that mattered was
> that he should continue to be and to remain a poet."
>
> (Which is not to forget that JDS and RMR published some books *before* they
> reached this stage.)
Bruce, thank you so much for mentioning that last part. I personally get
peeved when people who have accomplished state that it isn't important to
accomplish. They forget the complexity of causation. They forget that it
is precisely because they published that makes publishing irrelevant for
them. Publishing is acceptance. Once you have that you are free to cut
the apron strings of society and "give it" to the Man. Before that you
are just a crank.
Of course, being unpublished does have its freedom too . . . Give me
shackles!
-j