A Conservative Journey through Literary America – Part 3: To Write or Not to Write
by Matt PattersonMr. Blowhard gives us several juicy bones upon which to gnaw.
First, the point about closet conservatives. They come in one of two breeds: 1) those who hold conservative views but keep them quiet, preferring to avoid discussing politics altogether for fear of being sniffed out, and 2) those who not only hide their political views, but openly and falsely profess liberal views.
My good friend Martin, a professional musician, admits to me that he is among the former. “When I’m at social events, or any gathering of entertainers, and they start talking about Bush is evil, blah, blah, blah, I just bite my tongue, because I know that even if I say something, I’m not going to have time to correct all their stupid errors and assumptions, and even if I did, there’s no damn way they’re gonna listen to me anyway.” It sounds like you think artists are dumb, I say. “They are,” he answers with a sigh. “Incredibly.”
For Martin, and those of his breed, I have genuine sympathy. An artist in his position is surrounded constantly by people with whom he must work, with whom he must get along for work to both keep coming and run smoothly. Many of these co-workers are personal friends. This last is no small matter – artists are intensely clannish, and form tight personal bonds. So in my friend’s case, why jeopardize friendships? Why jeopardize income? Perfectly understandable, it seems to me, that he lets his friends and co-workers prattle on.
The latter breed, however, the ones who affect a liberal bias, projecting a false beard to the world, are a different matter. This is truly insidious, because the aim here is not just to protect one’s income by muting beliefs, but to gain income (and friends, I suppose) under false pretense.
(Mr. Blowhard thinks there may be a fair number of these folk, this, “go along” crowd. I hope he’s wrong. I can’t say that I know any myself, and for that, I am quite glad.)
Mr. Blowhard also brings up the New Formalists, a topic which nearly everyone I speak to about this subject mentions, and so we will turn to that subject tomorrow. But first, I want to address the last of Mr. Blowhard’s comments. You know – advising people, both on the right and on the left, to steer clear of a career in literature or the arts altogether, because “It’s likely to be a very hard one…. Money is scarce, success may never arrive, frustration and disappointment are inevitable, breakdowns and suicides aren’t uncommon.”
All true. But I wonder. Does one really have to be an author or artist to have a tough time in life? There are lots of waitresses and dock workers and miners who have it tough. Money is scarce for many people, in and out of the arts. Success, the definition of which varies from person to person, may never arrive for anyone, regardless of chosen profession. Frustration and disappointment are indeed inevitable…to any person living on planet Earth.
Mr. Blowhard asks why anyone would opt for the hard way in America, and I must say I was little surprised by that (entirely rhetorical, I presume) question. The artists who have surrounded me my whole life – authors, musicians, magicians, actors – didn’t opt for their life. They do what they love. No, that’s not true. There’s less choice than that, even. They do what they do because they can’t not do it.
Think of Poe. Living in squalor his whole life. Why didn’t he just become a grocery clerk, one might ask? Or a banker? At least then he would have been able to pay his rent. But that’s precisely the point. Poe, like any real artist, loved being an author, loved his macabre visions and his ability to spill them onto paper, more than he loved his rent. More, in fact, than he loved anything else, including his life.
Likewise, Ovid loved his verse more than he loved the Eternal City which nourished him. Loved his art more even than his freedom, which he lost when Augustus banished him to Tomis on the Black Sea for some mysterious crime perhaps relating to his verse. We owe a debt to every artist, who, like Ovid, chooses their art over their own comfort.
When I asked Philip Terzian, a Pulitzer finalist, if he would have any advice for an aspiring conservative author, he had a very different view than Mr. Blowhard. “Art is about struggle – use the friction,” says the Books and Arts editor for The Weekly Standard. Then he pointed out that, even if the literary establishment is repressive from a conservative standpoint, great literature can, and often has, emerged from repressive circumstances. “Comfort spoils the creative impulse,” says Mr. Terzian, who then points out that a lot of the literary set who toe the liberal line and get all the right grants and tenure end up producing junk.
In the end, advises Mr. Terzian – “Do what you love.”
[Ed. note: You can read a new chapter of this eight-part series every Saturday and Sunday morning. Part one can be seen here. Part two here.]
Matt Patterson is a columnist and commentator whose work has appeared in The Washington Examiner, The Baltimore Sun, and Pajamas Media. He is the author of “Union of Hearts: The Abraham Lincoln & Ann Rutledge Story.” His email is mpatterson.column@gmail.com.
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51 Comments
I was let go from a full-time and sort-of-well-paying job with local corporation five years ago: and the HR person who I had the final interview with was a little freaked because I was so weirdly cheerful about being fired. I was already well-started on my first novel, for months I had been looking around at my work-area every day, thinking to myself "I don't want to be here, doing this" I floated out of there with my severance check in hand, knowing that I would be able to stay home the next day and get a good start on the third chapter. Since then, I've done three more books – the Adelsverein Trilogy, a series of novels about the German settlements in the Texas Hill Country and never looked back. I've gone also gone through a dozen temp and part-time jobs since then, and occasionally having to juggle bills … but I couldn't go back to the corporate job, full-time. It would kill me, not to be able to write, and to spin my stories and dazzle and delight readers.
Ever since that day, I've thought of myself as a writer who does a little office admin and marketing on the side… rather than an office manager/admin assistant who does a little writing on the side.
I had a poetry prof in college who pointed out that many of the truly great artists are people who have suffered in some way or another. His theory was that the adversity of suffering brought out the ability in those people to put their emotions into their work and bring it to life. It was that ability to put passion into what they do and the range of emotion that their greater range of experiences of life had produced that made them what they were as artists. The flip side, he also pointed out, was that those circumstances also tended to have tragic consequences for the people involved. I wish I had thought to ask how this applied to the artists inspired by the divine at the time.
Interesting. I'm a Texan and an LCMS Lutheran, and my ex-wife's late father was a pastor who still did services in German at some of those Hill Country churches. He also wrote a historical novel called Except the Corn Die that is a Lutheran classic now.
Go you!
Interesting. I'm a Texan and an LCMS Lutheran, and my ex-wife's late father was a pastor who still did services in German at some of those Hill Country churches. He also wrote a historical novel called Except the Corn Die that is a Lutheran classic now.
Go you!
Interesting. I'm a Texan and an LCMS Lutheran, and my ex-wife's late father was a pastor who still did services in German at some of those Hill Country churches. He also wrote a historical novel called Except the Corn Die that is a Lutheran classic now.
Go you!
all great art is preceded by great pain; we would not have had the Renaissance if not for the Black Plague… why does better music as a whole come from the UK over the US? It's miserable over there in that stifling socialist enclave. California, on the other hand is filled with goodies and the lame PC nonsense eminating from it shows…
A lot of people have made this argument but its just a generalization. The romanticising of
Van Gogh's psychological problems probably started it.
Wallace Stevens, perhaps the greatest poet of the last century, was a normal guy who worked as an insurance industry exectutive during the day and wrote poems at night. Picasso, the greatest artist, had no great struggle (except with aging)., his success began in boyhood.
I did the same thing Sgt. I was a sales manager of a company, but would be back in the office, clacking away at the computer with my stories – in fact, I was canned because of it. When it comes, you have to follow it – and prepare yourself for sacrifice and rejection to make it. There are no guarantees, that is the risk, but perchance you find the conduit, it is very rewarding – especially the positive feedback of an audience who likes the outcome.
The thesis of Big Hollywood is that people finally have a place to pose viewpoints without the risk of enraging the lib community in large – sometimes, I chose Matt's first scenario – bite my tongue and go into that good night, but lately, I find myself becoming crankier – my head is exploding and I'm tired of the nasty, insulting rhetoric. And, because of this site, I know I am not alone.
Thanks, Huc – just one of the marvelous things that I discovered about the Hill Country, and the Adelsverein – was that German was the common language in Gillespie County until well into the 1920s; German-language newspapers, schools taught in German – everything. I read an account of a visitor to Fredericksburg (the county seat) in the 1880s who reported that he could only find one person in town who spoke English, and that was the sheriff and spoke it very badly. Many of the older generation still speak it quite fluently – so specialists still come from Germany to study their speech.
And during the Civil War, just about all the German settlers were Unionists, and anti-slavery, which meant extraordinary drama, being that they were in a pro-slave and Confederate state. I meant to write just one book, but found so much drama, I had to turn it into a Trilogy. One of my fans calls it 'Barsetshire with Cypress trees and lots of side-arms!'
As a musician who holds conservative views, I find myself biting my tongue when the conversation turns toward politics, for all the reasons you mention. The few close friends that know my beliefs don't pick on me, thank goodness. They are quite tolerant, one of the many reasons I count them as friends.
The greatest challenge for me is to find just the right time to puncture a fallacious argument with wit and grace, especially at the end of the night after a few libations.
You aren't, Jack – no guarantees, but it is such a thrill, connecting with readers who love the stories and empathize with your characters – they care about them, fall in love with them, worry over them and their experiences – and those characters are people that you created! That is just a total kick, creating a whole world that is so convincing that readers see it, too.
And under the guise of telling a ripping good yarn about 19th century Texas, I have been able to work in all sorts of small-c conservative themes: political independence, economic advancement, the courage to stand up for what you truly believe in, the strength of family and community, that America was a breathtakingly bold political experiment … all those values. I have even gotten some good reviews from political liberals, who saw only the themes they wished to see in all of it, and still enjoyed the books!
I read that the "Pennsylvania Dutch" (perverted with English ears from "Deutsch") – speak a dialect that was spoken in the 1600s Germany.
Your story of being laid off reminded me of my brief time at Cessna Aircraft in the early 1980s. Because of the economy then (deja vu) companies were walking away from their $100,000 Citation (business jet) deposits and after a brief 6 months and numerous layoff rumors sweeping my dept, I got the tap on the shoulder.
With my subsequent conversations with employee friends I made the observation ( also a cheerful tone) that "I was one of the few in the company that had nothing to worry about."
You could also write a book on "how the creative process works in book writing" – do you use an outline? Have a friend who just got his first book published (no mean feat) – he had over the last year contacted 300 publishers.
Funny think Edgar Allen Poe was mentioned and his suffering – I just read a "letter to the editor" in my alumni magazine Virginia (from UVa) – about Poe – who was a student there.
Much of his suffering it seems was from gambling – the letter writer said that he has a "gambling IOU" given by Poe to his great great (and so on) grandfather while both were students.
Gambling was his main undoing in life it seems…
A story:
My son is graduating HS. He is a conservative in California schools. He has never bitten his tongue. Last time was a Russian emegrae teacher who told him she would have to lower his grades for his views on the death penalty or something like nuclear power. (He kept telling all the other students facts during debates and not letting them speak nonsense without backup.) He responded if she did that he would go down to the principal and have her fired – in no uncertain terms. She shut up quick.
I do use a chapter outline, Bill – worked up from an excel spreadsheet which tracks historic events by month and year – I try to fit my characters lives and experiences in with historical events, so I have this huge sheet covering American and Texas history, local history in four different cities and towns … and I track my interlinked families on it, also. Very important, to remember how old the children are, at various points.
No, I was fairly cheerful – since I do draw a military pension, which takes care of my mortgage and a couple of bills, but I do have to eke out the rest… 300 publishers? That sounds about right. Unless you are notorious, or have a strong connection in the publishing biz – and sometimes not even then – it's an uphill fight all the way to even get published. (And then there is the marketing of the book… whole 'nother fight, there…)
The old Hill Country Germans apparently speak a version of German almost as archaic as the Pennsylvania Dutch – pure early 19th century regional dialects, with a lot of turns of phrase and words that have dropped out of modern German.
One of the things I have discovered in life is that you know when you're in the right field because you find that you have a talent for it and a passion for it. Moreover, you find that the fact that you don't make as much money or fame as you could have in another field, just doesn't matter to you. Thus, it doesn't surprise me that artists will choose to be artists even if they can't pay their rent.
If people would choose their professions based on what truly attracted them, they would be much happier in life. Unfortunately, most people choose their professions by first asking themselves what career path is most likely to lead to fame, fortune or security. Then they follow that path, whether they have a passion for it or not. And while those people can become quite good at their chosen field, they will never achieve happiness in their decision.
As the Greeks noted, you cannot find happiness by looking for it, you can only find happiness through the pursuit of something that makes you happy. Thus, pick a job that makes you happy, don't pick a job that you think will eventually bring you happiness.
300 publishers – add agents to the mix and it's closer to 4. Indeed, getting published is exhilarating, but it's only half the battle… now moving books is a whole other issue. Sgt., you know what it takes to stop the dust from collecting on your titles. If you don't have a talk show, or as you say, do something notoroius, it is a hard knock slug. Perspicacity and tenaciousness is the only formula to have a chance making a living at it. But I do love it too.
I really dislike this romantic "tortured artist" nonsense.
Just to take some examples from music, Palestrina was a fraking lawyer, for crying out loud, who lived a very sedate life. Heinrich Schutz did travel widely – and during a time of war – but was a very meek and mild mannered fellow. J.S. Bach was a family man and church organist who rarely strayed very far from home and had very little drama in his life. Mozart, reading contemporary accounts, had no remarkable features to his personality whatsoever, and people who were fans of his were almost always struck by how utterly unremarkable he seemed when they met him. Haydn was considered by many to be a complete and total stick-in-the-mud, and many of the Flemish masters were as serious as bankers (And their music showed it. LOL!). Brahms was perhaps the least extroverted romantic composer ever, but he was indubitably the best, but even he was a firebrand next to Bruckner, who was considered a dowdy provincial rube. Schubert was a shy, short, fat kid who was too terrified to introduce himself to Beethoven, but dang, could he craft a sublime tune.
These kinds of composers vastly outnumber the tragic and moody Beethovens and Schumans, the flamboyant Liszts and Paganinis, &c. What this notion is, is a problem of perception: The notorious and infamous get a lot more attention, but they are in a distinct minority.
I feel sorry for your friends who have to maintain their silence, however reluctantly. I do, however, understand the concept that discretion is the better part of valor. As for the others, I think that's called "sleeping with the enemy."
This is great stuff. I'm also of German descent, and LCMS (an escapee from the ELCA). I knew all about the Germans in Pennsylvania, as well as those throughout the Midwest. This is the first time I had any idea there had been a large German community in Texas (I was born in Chicago, but raised in California). I'm going to get SgtMom's books.
As a lawyer, I never had to worry too much about my outspoken conservative positions. But after I retired from practice and went into labor consultation representing large retail corporations at contract negotiations, I found I had to soft-pedal my views. The union reps and the corporate reps fought each other tooth and nail over wages and benefits, but their liberal political views were nearly identical. It was a bit of a culture shock for me.
I'm sorry, but I have to say that I have no respect for those who will not stand up for what is right and true. I'm not saying we have to jump on a soapbox everytime a topic remotely comes up. That's obnoxious regardless of who does it or what view they have. There is a place for wisdom and discernment and just good old tact.
But I see people constantly who are TERRIFIED to even speak an opinion on their own journal or on Facebook or in real life with people they consider friends! How on earth are we going to make any positive impact in our culture if we as conservatives are too afraid to make a peep even when there's no risk of something major like losing a job?
How we did we become such cowards?
THANK GOD! There ARE still people with guts in this world – and one so young! Please tell him I applaud him.
And you are to be commended for raising him right! Cheers to you both. It gives me hope in a world where I see so many conservatives who are cowards, afraid to ever say a world about anything, to anyone!
Bravery is hard. To quote an Arab:
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
Kahlil Gibran
Sometimes all you need to do is ask them why they hold to their view. Almost always you'll see them revert to their feelings, and not have any facts or actual reasons. It doesn't have to be done in a nasty way, and it's not like you have to deconstruct their entire worldview that same night. It could be just something to start them thinking and pave the way for a longer conversation next time.
And Rimsky and Korsakoff were sea captains., Charles Ives in insurance, Gauguin was a banker, etc. Adversity does not create art, it can prevent it, but too much comfort dilutes it incredibly. then you just have a lot of craft without heart and soul.
"To quote an Arab" not done too much on this site.
I love historical novels Sgt – years ago (36 to be exact) I was stationed in the Army near Landstuhl (where the hospital is that so many wounded are taken today) – while there I read Herman Woulk's Winds of War and was astounded to be near some small towns he mentioned in the book. Supurb in depth research. One thought reading the book you were having dinner with Goring at Karinhalle in the late 1930s.
Take history, do not distort it and add some fictional characters. Recently finished a book on Rommel called Killing Rommell, by Steven Pressfield. Learned all about the Long Range Desert Group and the brave (mostly New Zealanders) who made the long range raids. And respected Erwin Rommel. Pressfield did a lot of his own marketing, going on talk shows and having a nice web site. So these days writing well is just the beginning and no guarantee of success it seems. Is all this because so much of the country doesn't read anymore?
On getting published, Hugh Hewitt sometime ago interviewed an author who like Tom Clancy has a series of books on a hero – for the life of me I can't remember his name (my senior moments more than his notoriety) – but he was saying for his first book nobody wanted him and he self-published it.
Then when people got interested in that the publishers got interested in his next book.
Hollywood is interested in producing movies based on his books – could be the next Bond franchise. The author lives in Minnesota.
But getting published seems to be a huge discipline in itself – one has to wonder how a modern fictional Hemingway or Faulkner would do today!
I had to close my business over a year ago – March 2008 – had nothing to do with the recession but a business whose time had come and gone – and have wondered about writing. Because I have always been financially conservative I'm not as bad off as some are now. I have to really get motivated and interested in a subject though
I would think having passion in a subject would make the words flow.
With your subject sounds like you could be the next Larry McMurtry – loved his stories. Found your website with your trilogy and because I fixed my old car this month have to wait a bit but have bookmarked your site! Your subject matter also interests me. Thanks for taking the time to comment…
I always knew about New Braunfels TX Lawhawk but but for me too this is the first time I have heard of all the settlements around the Hill Country! Plus I like BBQ and Shiner Beer – maybe we should move there….
I believe, though not proven, that many artists are manic-depressive – when they are high (the manic side) they are extremely creative and when down…that is where the suffering comes from. In Poe's case most of his suffering was due to gambling debts – something of his own doing.
Yep but I still can't figure out his paintings
(Picasso)
It is a shame that in so many schools these days teachers want to teach what to think instead of how to think. Bravo to your son for having the courage to stand up to her.
Or Friedrich Nietsche: "That which does not destroy me strengthens me".
Bravery is hard. To quote an Arab: Yep. There are smart people who care about the world and how we live life all over the place. What passes for journalism in 2009 only reports the fools, thieves, and murderers.
"Art is struggle"
Oh, C'mon, give me a break and get over yourself. Write or don't write. Either way, the world will keep spinning.
Indeed. I suffer for my Art!
Hee, hee. These guys need to get over themselves.
He is using FACTS in CA.
Hey, he will have to move soon. We don't need no Stinkin facts here in CA.
"No, that’s not true. There’s less choice than that, even. They do what they do because they can’t not do it."
Jesus, do you really believe this crap????
Art is play. Anybody who thinks that it is anything else is not an artist.
Good approach.
I'm packing right now.
Bill: My former office manager is a Texan. He went back to Texas almost fifteen years ago, and he keeps trying to convince me to move there. His favorite Texanism related to armadillos. Apparently the slow-moving critters have a habit of crossing highways and getting terminated with extreme prejudice. The proper Texas etiquette is to stop at the sight of the body, and respectfully place a Lone Star Beer in the armadillo's paw. I am assuming the beer container will be empty at the time of the ceremony.
Rimsky and Korsakov were one guy. I don't think he was conjoined twins, either. You may be thinking of Korzeniowsky, aka Joseph Conrad. And don't forget Kafka: he worked for an insurance company and later ran an asbestos plant.
Of course that's true. Anyone who writes would do it even if nobody paid them. If you only do it for the money, switch to landscaping or telemarketing and let someone do it who enjoys it.
I write too. Unlike the scribbler of this blog and many of you poseur posters, I am paid well to do so and have a fan base that, imagine this, transverses ideological boundaries. I visit this page anytime my confidence shrivels slightly, when I feel like I'm drowning in pages, to see the truly unbreathable words at the bottom of the ocean. Thanks for the breath.
Thanks, Bill – and yes, the passion has to be there. You have to care about the persons – fictional and otherwise, and it gets to the point where you have to tell the story. You can't not do it! The joke around my writers' support group, the IAG (Independent Authors' Guild) is that writing it is only half the job – the other is getting it out there, putting your story in front of readers who will likely be interested.
Not the first time I've been compared to McMurtry, though
although, for my money, he rambles too far off the central plot in side-excursions into the characters. You read along, and pretty soon you are thinking … oh, what happened to the plot? Was there a plot and a point? Are we going to get back to it any time soon? Eh, that's his way of telling a story, and I have mine.
Good for you, ducks … remember to take the next one. Otherwise, you will be turning unattractively purple and all.
Sgt –
Years ago, I watched the mini series Centenial – taken from James Mitchener's book. The series was in my opinion so well done – loved the way they went from the present and went back to the 18th century trappers – I decided to read Mitchener's book.
That book started from the dinosaurs – giminy Christmas – I lasted about 100 pages before I couldn't take it.
You talk about long-winded – of course, who am I to criticize Mitchener – in my opinion the king of literary long-windedness – I had also read Hawaii but at the time (1969) I was working in the back country of Sequoia NP with a chainsaw and a sleeping bag – and no diversions
Later seeing Lonesome Dove on TV I was so taken by McMurtry's characters Gus and Woodrow I had to read the book and enjoyed that – I was so taken with the characters as your readers are taken with yours.
I think part of the reason was that they had seen so much change in Texas – and were instrumental in "taming" it – and were in their later years considered "relics" by an unappreciative populace, but they still soldiered on.
The barroom scene in San Antonio was priceless.
I guess what I like about a good historical novel is that if done right you are taken back into time. You can look at "today" and get an idea how we got there.
I love history and writing so I just have to find the vehicle.
Thanks (as one who has BTDT – for spending a bit of time with me….
Amazing to find a discussion of German influence in the Texas Hill Country (how else to explain the presence of accordian and polka harmonies in Tejano music?!) at Big Hollywood at 1:20am on a Saturday. As a fan of "Der Schlitterbahn," Oma's Haus, and Gruene, I plan to find Sarge's books ASAP.____
As for the actual theme of the article. Yup. Getting your book/film/album read/seen/heard is the other 150% of the equation after all the effort, perspiration, and luck that got the damned thing imagined and made in the first place. All the more reason to make it good when you get the chance and then believe in it and do it justice when it comes time to get it out there.
Two non-fiction books which gives a great history of the Hill Country German's is , Lone Star A History Of Texas And Texans,by T.R. Fehenbach. Too understand who and why LBJ was what he was, and might have detested many of those big German boys he grew up with, Robert Caro's trilogy beat's um all. The Path To Power gives insight into being raised amongst the German Texans. Von Braunfel's located the German's to the hill country, and promised them "fertile land". As soon as they cleared the fields of the "scrub brush", the soil washed off. As Jerry Jeff Walker so famously wrote, "taken again". Which brings up sheep, and the old tunnel that went under the only trans-state highway, passing through the hill country, US. 281.
When it comes to good old "jerky", you got give it to those Hill Country Germans.
The most difficult part of taking on Loony Lefties in a social setting is time. They are deeply wrong about so many topics, so credulous without evidence, so willing to believe anything as long as it's stupid, that it would take a year long re-education camp just to get them up to ignorant from ill informed.
I'm glad that the only people who take them seriously are people who are just as silly as they are.
There is something to the notion of vocation, or calling. It's not just for those who are missionaries or priests or even for writers and musicians. I have met people in these fields who also do what they do because it is a job and they're comfortable. I have also met people who are landscapers, insurance brokers, parts department managers, sailors, Marines, secretaries, and engineers who do what they do because they couldn't not do it. There is a spiritual compulsion and passion they cannot ignore. They're not all at the top of their fields, veritable Rembrandts or Goddards, either. They are called, however, and must follow the path they do.
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