Garrison Keillor to me: Get over it, already

[pegkerr]

I have sort of a hard time not taking this personally. Garrison Keillor says that writers who gripe that Writing is Hard (and you all know that I've bitched plenty about being blocked in this journal before) should just get a grip and knock it off. Writing is hard. Get over it.

Writers, Quit Whining. Spare us the self-involved moaning over the agonies of your art. Writing is no harder than anything else, and the complainers should can it.

Ouch.

Thoughts?

Comments

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting take on identity, in your second paragraph.

As a bisexual woman who's in a monogamous relationship with another woman, I don't agree with a word of it. (If you don't get the connection, I can explain.)

Someone can still /be/ something even if they're not directly practicing it. Really.

[gamps-garret.livejournal.com]

As a lesbian who's attempted to date men to make everyone else happy, I agree with your take on identity completely.

"Writer" is a job defintion, not purely a concept of identity. To have artisitc leanings, to be an artist expressing oneself through words, is identity. I note a very particular difference.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Ah, hm. As usual, comes down to word choice. Given the definitions you're using, then, I agree. The only problem is that many people use 'writer' to indicate their specific way of being an artist. But for purposes of this discussion, I can forego that.

[porcinea.livejournal.com]

But being bi is a matter of identity. Being a writer is a matter of behavior. There is no identity as a writer that is uncoupled from actually putting pen to paper and writing. Thoughts in your head <> writing.

On the gripping hand, thoughts in my head *most definitely* equal bisexuality.

Which is not say that one might not identify as a writer after having practiced the behavior of writing sufficiently. But if you haven't written anything? So sorry. Not A Writer.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm /so/ not going to argue that bisexuality should be defined by behavior. I'd sprain my brain.

I mostly got into this because at one point, Peg was struggling with whether to call herself a writer even though she's not writing /now/. (I think that's less of an issue at the moment.) I totally agree that those who have not written Are Not Writers. Period.