What has value?

The artist's "paradox" and the value of Art

Jade just posted this.

I restacked it. I’m posting here in hopes more people will see it.

I gotta be honest (not self-deprecating): Jade writes better than me (just like Riley creates better videos than I do—those I do have my moments 😉). She writes in a way I don’t and cuts straight to the heart of things where I like to do the bird-walk/rabbit hole thing. I guess they both have their place, but hers is on higher level that mine and that makes me happy. I’d give a kidney to write that well but gifts like that can’t be brought even with kidney. So I’m gonna make do with what I got.

This is a somewhat expanded version of what I said:

This (the question of supporting writers financially) is something I’ve thought about and talked with friends about… a lot.

It’s a “paradox” of being a writer, especially an independent one, and independent has more than one meaning. As writers, we’re often told it’s a nice “hobby” and there’s this feeling that because we have a passion for it, that should be enough. Being told how meaningful our words are and how much they touch people should be a enough.

There’s also this “romantic” idea of the “tortured” artist starving in a garret and if we’re dying of consumption so much the better. It seems like that makes us “genuine.” And then, for those super-tiny number who make it “big” and reap the riches there often comes the muttering that they “sold out”.

So we end up in this situation where we’re praised, by people who do mean it, and will pluck down $5 for a mocha and another $4 or $5 for a pastry on their way to work, totally without thinking, but won’t pay $9 for writing that moves them. Because the “value” of art is somehow “tainted” by money?

That’s how it feels anyway. Like we’re supposed to be pure and money is “grubby.”

And the problem is, it’s not entirely wrong. There’s this story about Jewel, the music artist. She was homeless, living in her car, playing wherever she could play. Someone from a label (I forget the details) heard her, tracked her down, offered a million dollars.

She said no.

And that’s admirable. It took really strong character and a ton of guts. And it was the right thing to do, because the million came with conditions that were unacceptable to her; that were selling out.

Because that money wasn’t being offered as support. It was to make her a commodity.

And that’s the difference. The big, huge, fucking massive difference.

Being an artist vs being a commodity.

Yeah, I’ll starve in a garret, I’ll live under a bridge (there’s a nice one a short walk from where I live) before I’ll let some corporation turn me into a commodity.

Genuine support is another thing entirely.

And that raises the question of value. What does value really mean?

I’ll go back to Starbucks. No one needs Starbucks.

In that sense, what they sell has no value. It’s not that coffee has no value—coffee is absolutely vital! But not from Starbucks. Alternatives that are more cost-effective and just as good or better exist and are easy to get. The value of Starbucks is in the jobs it creates and the coffee growers it supports (who might even do better elsewhere?).

So in that sense, what we’re doing is supporting the barista with our over-priced latte and scone.

Okay, that’s fair. But personally, I’d rather support the barista at the independent coffee place down the street. (There’s a lot of coffee in my town.)

But I’m bird-walking. The point is, how to we assign value? Starbucks doesn’t sell coffee and scones; they sell convenience. And we value convenience.

What about cable? The people I know who have it spend around $150/mo on it. (I haven’t had cable in my adult life.) And most of them bitch about what’s on it.

Huh? $150/mo for a service to bitch about? Just weird…

But again, no one needs cable. I’ll even say everyone would be healthier without cable.

Read books. Books are healthy. Cable is not. It’s physiological.

OK, another bird-walk mini-rant.

Don’t get me started on smartphones…

These are all things people put a huge amount of monetary value on. Starbucks alone takes in about $40 billion per year. And those are just a few of the luxuries people value and actually seem to take for granted.

But Art? Writing? Writing they say moves them, touches them, brings them to tears, make them feel seen?

Not worth that $10 they dropped that morning without thinking on a something that lasted 15 mins.

That’s not a new thing. The Sistine chapel ceiling wasn’t crowd-funded. Lots of artists we revere today lived and/or died in poverty. Art and money don’t mix.

Funny story: Simonides, the Greek lyric poet, was the first poet who monetized his work. Money was still looked askance at then (it was the exchange of gifts without a set value that was felt to be legit). But Simonides, who was much in demand, decided to charge and he charged by the word.

One time, a rich client engaged him for some poetry (probably an elegy; those were very important). Simonides delivered and was paid his fee, but it was half what he expected. Naturally, he complained.

His client responded: “You charge by the word. Half your words meant nothing. I paid for the ones that did.”

Gotcha! 🤣

But seriously. There’s nothing romantic about starving in a garret. Our passion does not pay the rent. Compliments do mean a tremendous amount but they don’t put food on the table or pay our bills. Financial support is not an insult; it doesn’t compromise us. It allows us to make art.

Artists today are a target. Stripe demonetizes us, Substack suspends us and bans us; all for things that are not explained and we often never did. They try to shut us down and then lie about it (for all the reasons I’ve talked about so much, and so has Jade and so has Riley).

And we’re not worth financial support because of these romantic notions or simply because people got it into their heads that art should be free. (Or supported by grants. I’ve known artists who spend at least 80% of their time writing grants, but they work for non-profits. Independent artists don’t qualify for grants.)

So if you’ve read and enjoyed Jade’s work (as often as the Bots of Substack let you) think about that next time you walk into Starbucks, watch cable, look at your smartphone.

Who needs that money more? Even just $10?

What are you really getting out of it?

OK. I’m done. Go read Jade (once again: while you have a chance), and support her; give her a tip (there’s a link on this page). She’s totally worth it.

And she writes better than me. if you’ve read this far, you know it’s true.

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PS: I wanna say one last thing. I mentioned being “independent” before. There’s two kinds of independent writing. There’s independent writing that follows the market (or tries to) for the purpose of making money, and there’s independent writing that is truly independent, that follows nothing but the writer’s heart.

I’m not dissing the former (we need to make a living), but Jade’s is the latter. And I think comes back to the whole “grubby money” bit. Writing that serves a market is a product that is crafted to meet a demand. And people pay for it because of that.

Heart-writing is not created to meet any demand of the market, but the demands of our hearts and souls; the author’s and the reader’s. And people praise it.

Very, very rarely the two conjoin, but that’s a Black Swan moment.

So please, give all the other swans a little support.

Ok… done now.