Would you rather:
A) write a couple fairly well received books when you're young, make some decent money from it, enjoy a comfy interesting life, but have your writings basically forgotten by the time you are old
or
B) work shit jobs while struggling to write a book well into middle age, get it published after many years of trying, hardly anyone reads it, die poor and nameless but your book becomes a classic decades after your death and you are still cited hundreds of years later
>implying I'm looking for approval
if you dont answer b you need to leave this board
Would you pick A or B?
B because I can then enjoy my posthumous fame from heaven.
Who cares? either way you die nameless. The options are functionally identical from a Veeky Forums perspective.
Ok
A
I don't ever need to be widely acclaimed, I don't really care
Now the choice you've presented to me isn't even a choice. It is a death sentence either way. That said, if you ask me whether I favour gold over glory then I say glory every time. The only thing left to do is define glory, at least for myself. On the one hand I look at the notion of glory and immortality through posterity's memory as misguided and futile, and yet at the same time it seems as good a thing as any to devote myself to. I just finished Hunger and all through it I felt a little ashamed of my own meagre output as I am living in marvelous conditions in comparison to the main character. I have the tools and the economic situation to set down opuses so magnum they do indeed last centuries, but why would I value those generations so far down? Yes, they will be pinnacles like we digital-age children are pinnacles on mankind's plateaus, the crests in the wave, and they will never notice it. Whether the work is praised in its time or way down the line by few or many, should matter not to me. I'll write it for myself and no one else. At least, I'll start out that way, just writing for myself. Inevitably it will not be in my hands anymore, but even though we lose our rights to our work after a certain fixed number of years, that initial writing, wholly ours, can never be taken from us.
Now that I've arrived at how I feel, I would have to have to go with A. God knows it's what the past's starving writers would've wanted. I see glory as in ephemerality, not eternity. I see this earth in my fingers as something to frolick in, not to shape and grow and build monuments on.
I choose A. If I kill myself after having a string of well-received books, I'll be canonized regardless.
a, I'm not seeking immortality through my work
B: the official answer of those in self-righteous denial
t. spineless hack in actual denial
>make some decent money from it
mfw
you know nothing about the publishing business, friendo
Go ahead and pick B, no skin off my back
You'll get no sympathy from me, however, when you are nearing the end of your life and cursing yourself for placing your well being under the priority of a (by definition) narcissistic and youthful need to be remembered. Remembered by a people you will never meet or even be sure of existing. A need for remembrance that old men very rarely still have.
Your final hour will be one of regret and panic. It will be the realization that you sacrificed the quality of the only life and period of consciousness you are ever going to get for the pat on the back you knew, even then, would never actually come for you.
You will cry and turn in bed, your weak and atrophied legs skittering across the soiled sheets, until you die, weak and foul just like you were for all of your life. The sad, short-sighted insect that just wanted to be understood.
But yeah dude go with B, it sounds good
read this post back to yourself and ask yourself why you'd ever choose to let user know they hit a nerve with you this badly. literally why. are you new?
i bet you thought you were actually smashing it with this post too lmao thanks for letting me know how conflicted you feel over selling out you spineless chump.
The "unwarranted 'I seem to have hit a nerve'" meme may be a very old one but that does not excuse how fucking lame it is
I'm just feeling good tonight and looking to start shit. Reply to my post's substance, turn around, pull down those briefs, and let me ravage that creamy doughy anus like the good girl you are
Does choice B help humanity more than any other alternative I have?
B could easily just be a sham. You could be told it was going to happen only to have no one follow through after you're dead. That's what I'd do if I was running this operation
both
Definitely B. Easy choice IMO.
>The "unwarranted 'I seem to have hit a nerve'" meme may be a very old one but that does not excuse how fucking lame it is
haha you were close having an emotional episode then. do you really think you can try to pic related as hard as possible and user won't sense what you are doing?
it's not my fault you're a mediocre person and you chose security over integrity. you can LARP as an arrogant champion all you want. it's transparent and desperate. your level of emotion itt is desperate. RIP your integrity.
Fella, look at my post up there. It melodramatic and ridiculous and I meant for it to be so. How can you look at a sentence like the one mentioning atrophied legs and it was written in complete seriousness
Now zip that fucking mouth and don't unzip it until you're ready to reply to what I said
>Fella, look at my post up there. It melodramatic and ridiculous and I meant for it to be so.
emotion is emotion is emotion. you can pretend that some kind of pithy sarcasm was the intention the whole time but the reason why you chose to be that over the top with your response then is because you were secretly miffed at user's post and wanted to make user as miffed as he just made you. it's really that simple. i almost want to say you are a new poster because you are making like every bad move you possibly could here.
don't take to Veeky Forums and try to salve your wounded conscience with these bravado addled witticism sessions because integrity is no longer on the table for you. user can see right through you when you do that. if you have some nice cash now then more power to you. honestly. go spend it however you want and live your life. but you don't get it both ways, lad. no matter how hard you try to LARP.
Do you write fantasy novels? You should. I think you have a knack for quickly developing very well thought out and very interesting fantasies
I smell money to be made, user
On the contrary: anyone who says B needs to give up literature as it has become an unhealthy obsession for them.
>user speaks plainly to you and you nervously quip the pain away
okay.
I'm just not really sure how to respond, he's doing a really good job of reading into something that isn't actually there (and I mean that genuinely) so there really isn't anything I can criticize without just reverting back to "but you're just wrong, dumbass!!"
>something that isn't actually there (and I mean that genuinely)
stop lying to yourself already. you resent that integrity is no longer on the table for you. egotist boy wants to have his cake and eat it too and cannot deal with the fact that he can't now. deal with that however you want but stop forcing your desperate denial onto strangers over it.
Clearly B. There are plenty of ways to make a decent living, but being remembered for generations for your genius is one in a billion.
C) Write something you know is perfect but never attempt to publish it because you don't want to live on past your death in any way
>I see this earth in my fingers as something to frolick in
You must have long fingers to be able to hold something while frolicking in it
B
tangentially related, but what causes writers and other artists to suddenly be remembered long after death?
Perfect for you maybe
But not for anyone else
Which ever one you pick you'll be thinking about the other path the whole time any way.
I choose C) work a shit job and still be forgotten
>be me
>be a writer
>had a shit life
>in the last 5 years I manage to write a actual masterpiece
>peace ensues, my life is now justified and I'm no longer afraid to die
>look at all my peers
>they have done nothing, in their life only cheap entertainment was present
>they will die 5 minutes after their last breath, while I instead will enjoy immortality
*die whit a smile on my face*
>implying
Yeah, must be great being a Shakespeare like writer who is remembered and praised for things you didn't even write
Pic was not related, I just wanted to give an example of someone who has reached immortality through their art.
Shakespeare picked C) be a genius and be recognized as such in your lifetime and after your death
B, most definitely
Some dive into the sea and some toil upon the stone. Some people enjoy working on their craft, and if writing is your craft and you want to be as good at it as possible, why not?
I don't know, or even care for that matter, really. My writing is for no one but me. And if I think it's worth sharing, I'll try my luck with publishing.
Write for yourself.