ARS GRATIA ARTIS, a response

Saturday, March 6th, 2010 | Posted by: Philip Persinger

What follows is a letter I wrote to a friend about what art means to me in a changing world and why to pursue it even when there is no sustainable future in it:

I’m probably the last guy to ask for advice. I don’t see the glass as half empty or half full. I see it as breakable.

Basic Observation #1: Because of a huge cultural shift and the misguided belief that if education was good, over-education is better, we are now awash in an abundance of poets, playwrights, screenwriters, novelists, painters, et al. Each one has the same shot at self-sufficiency at his or her craft as the ghetto kid playing pick up basketball does of reaching the NBA.

I have always pursued artistic ventures existentially, probably in lieu of a god. I think religion is mass manipulation and personal delusion. But you’ve got to have something to keep from going crazy, so I am an artist. But I do not categorized myself. I am not a writer or a painter. I create product. The last few years my product has been books.

While I am baffled by writers who are writers first and storytellers second, I can understand the need to give yourself a personal identity that seems more important than “an insignificant spec on a pebble for the blink of an eye”.

Basic Observation #2: The next Big Thing will be unrealized until it is too late to get into it.

In publishing, I think the tipping point will be when there is one more writer than there are readers.

The book I am working on might actually be good, but the writing is inspired more by the personal need to bring it to fruition than fantasies about commercial success. I’m not sure I will even bother sending out query letters this time.

If I were younger, I think I would probably spend my computer time editing video. I think video is a medium that has the most outlets and markets. Whatever the next Big Thing is, it will probably involve images and sound. But I’m not a turncoat to old media. I’ve read Homer in Greek.

On the other hand, in a generally sucky world, writing is keeping me sane and happy.