The Grand Ballroom Theory of Literature

My last article, “Why You Should Still Build Your Raft of Art in the Sea of Slop,” was a rant slash cri de coeur about avoiding all the noise and focusing on your art. It got a lovely response. I’m glad it resonated. A few comments brought up some topics I didn’t get into, such as how one thinks about art in relation to readers, your community, and other artists. It seems essential—or at least it has been essential to me—for one’s art to be something you enjoy and find enriching in itself, regardless of how it performs in “the market.” We can’t control the reaction to our work. We can only control the work and strive to make it as interesting, weird, funny, true, and beautiful as possible.