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individualism / collectivism
Noticed the following passage in Tony Kushner's Afterword to Angels In America, and I thought it was relevant, given that in May I'm going to be entering my first long-term collective living arrangement in five years, and will also be embarking upon a collaborative writing project with poet Eric Burger. More on that later, for now here's the quote:
"Americans pay high prices for maintaining the myth of the Individual: We have no system of universal health care, we can't pass sane gun control laws, we elect presidents like Reagan, we hate and fear inevitable processes like aging and death. Way down close to the bottom of the list of evils Individualism visits on our culture is the fact that in the modern era it isn't enough to write; you must also be a Writer, and play your part in a cautionary narrative in which you will fail or triumph, be in or out, hot or cold. The rewards can be fantastic, the punishment dismal; it's a zero sum game, and its guarantor of value, its marker is that you pretend you play it solo, preserving the myth that you alone are the wellspring of your creativity."
Labels: personal, writing |
Saturday, April 24, 2004
12:16 PM
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