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roachboy · 02-20-2008, 08:29 AM

i agree with asaris.

it is tedious to either fake the funk, as it were, or to interact with someone who does. so don't do it.

as for being-an-artist: well, that's tougher.
generally, i think eliot was right--everyone's a poet at 18--no-one is at 40.
i was much more willing to call myself something like that when i was 18 and didn't know anything (though no-one could have persuaded me that i didn't know anything) than i have been since. the effect of being so cavalier about it when i was young and stupider is that it has taken me a very long time to take over that category for myself, and even now i dont go around saying it because i still feel funny about it.

i guess the short version would be: if your comrade is a kid, it doesnt matter what he or she says about "being an artist"---it only matters that they keep going and figure out for themselves what that means really. at first, it's just a word that lots of folk take over in order to express little more than what you say--a sense of "specialness"....but the world is so constructed that this sense will probably get slapped outta this character sooner or later--
and that drama belongs to him/her, not you.

besides, it's not what you say about what you do: it's what you do.
you can say anything you want. anyone can.
it's the doing that matters.
whether you're faking the funk or not in the end gets revealed through your work.

02-20-2008, 08:29 AM	#3 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	i agree with asaris. it is tedious to either fake the funk, as it were, or to interact with someone who does. so don't do it. as for being-an-artist: well, that's tougher. generally, i think eliot was right--everyone's a poet at 18--no-one is at 40. i was much more willing to call myself something like that when i was 18 and didn't know anything (though no-one could have persuaded me that i didn't know anything) than i have been since. the effect of being so cavalier about it when i was young and stupider is that it has taken me a very long time to take over that category for myself, and even now i dont go around saying it because i still feel funny about it. i guess the short version would be: if your comrade is a kid, it doesnt matter what he or she says about "being an artist"---it only matters that they keep going and figure out for themselves what that means really. at first, it's just a word that lots of folk take over in order to express little more than what you say--a sense of "specialness"....but the world is so constructed that this sense will probably get slapped outta this character sooner or later-- and that drama belongs to him/her, not you. besides, it's not what you say about what you do: it's what you do. you can say anything you want. anyone can. it's the doing that matters. whether you're faking the funk or not in the end gets revealed through your work. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 02-20-2008 at 08:31 AM..