A Great Book, and one writer’s fear of getting a job.
by sarah pearson
I’m reading the most lovely book right now called “The Emperor’s Children,” written by Claire Messud and published by Random House. It’s about the lives of three young friends, all just turned thirty, and about how they are trying to come of age. The whole novel takes place in the months building up to September 11th, and there’ a real sense in the book - so far, at least - of the challenges of growing up, maturing and finding your calling in our particular generation.
Here’s an edited selection from one wonderful scene in the novel. Marina is the 30-year-old daughter of Murray Thwaite, a sort of Noam-Chomsky figure in this fictional world. She has been
“writing a book” for the past several years, and isn’t really getting anywhere with it. Not even a year ago she broke up with her partner, and has been “temporarily” living with her parents again in their Park Avenue apartment, in order to “finish her manuscript” (which has been untouched for several weeks). In this chapter, Marina comes to her celebrated father for advice. This is a
hilarious conversation which, when I read it, I could have sworn I’d had myself with my own parents back when I just finished university.
“Daddy, what am I going to do?”
Murray Thwaite blinked. [...]
“Danielle thinks I should get a job,” Marina said at last.
“What kind of job did you have in mind?”
“That’s the thing. First off, should I even have one while I’m trying to finish the book - and then, you know, a real job would be so demaning, after all, that’s what an interesting job is supposed to be; and an easy job, a dumb job, well, at that point, who am I kidding?”
Murray Thwaite had little patience for this. He suddenly saw his daughter as a monster he and [his wife] Annabel had created - they and a society of excess. [...] He said, “You know you’re welcome here as long as you like. A bed, a roof, your dinner you’ve got, and a little cash too, as long as your mother and I can manage it.”
Marina nodded, as if chastened by his generosity, waiting for what might follow.
What, he wondered, should follow? “But the question is, what do you want to do with your life?”
“I want - you know, what I’ve always wanted, Daddy. To write something important.”
Could she not hear herself? [...]
“With writing. I’d like to write something - articles, a book - that mattered.”
“But on what subject? What do you believe in?”
“Not children’s clothes, that’s for sure,” she snorted, ruefully. “I don’t know. There are so many things. You, of all people, know what it’s like -”
“Different issues are important to different people, my girl, as you are well aware. [...] You’ve got to find your subject. Or a first subject, something to start with.”
“But how?”
“Maybe in the first instance your friend has a point. Maybe you should get a job of some kind.”
[...]
“I suppose what I worry is-” Marina gave her father a self-depricating smile, to his mind one of her most bewitching expressions - “I worry that will make me ordinary, like everybody else.”
-From “The Emperor’s Children,” by Claire Messud, published by Random House. page72-74.
So many artists go through this same struggle. In the end, I think good honest hard work is necessary for creative output. We can never be too good for the real world - especially since it is for the world that we make art! I loved reading this conversation, because it reminded me of how hard it was to get used to ‘menial jobs’ after graduating from uni. Now, I embrace them. One of my favorite jobs of all times was slicing bread at a local bakery. Seriously, it made me so happy. And as artists, getting out there and working with our hands, or just plain WORKING gives us the framework from which to create. It gives you something to keep moving for. So that when, in those special moments of spare time when a creative idea beams in suddenly, the story it begs to to tell is real.
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Published on: March 4th, 2008
Terms Used: Art, artistic process, claire messud, jobs, the emperor's children, working, writers
About: sarah pearson
Sarah Pearson is a writer, singer, and player-of-keys based in Montreal. She loves bicycles, old pianos and Ile Sans Fils cafés.
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Do you have any idea how condescending you sound? “We can never be too good for the real world - especially since it is for the world that we make art!” Good God - if you even have to write about not being too good for the real world, you’ve clearly thought it at some point. And forget “good honest work” being necessary for creative output - for the vast majority of the world - the world you make art for, mind - work is utterly necessary. Few can rest on their artistic laurels, or count on Marina’s daddy to ge them through the rough patches. I quite disliked The Emperor’s Children, mostly because the characters were all children: selfish, self-absorbed, and utterly disconnected from real life. If you want to make good art, or - let’s start with the basics - be a decent human being, try connecting with the real world instead of treating it like a freaking diorama at the museum. Believe me - the adoring world won’t thank you for that, artist or not. And grow up, for God’s sake: everyone is ordinary - and that’s what makes everyone extrordinary.
Posted on March 17th, 2008 at 3:09 pm [permalink]
Well, “A”, this is the reality for working artists. If you want to write a novel, or become a great musician, or actor, or master any kind of art, the question has to come up: are you going to cloister yourself and write/train/study full time? Or bus tables while going to auditions and taking evening monologue workshops? The question is not condescending, it’s realistic; if you want to master something, should you devote yourself to it full-time?
Having a “day-job” can be looked down upon by some artistic communities. It calls into question your devotion to the craft. So many of us struggle over whether to take on a “career” while pursuing our artistic ambitions after-hours, as a side-project or hobby.
This question is particularly relevant to our generation of twenty/thirtysomethings who hold university degrees and who live pretty middle-class lives, despite many of us carrying lots of student debt. We’re accused of being a generation refusing to grow up (precisely what The Emperor’s Children is arguing: the characters are SUPPOSED to be like children, that’s the whole POINT…hello, the title!!). We’re a generation taught that we should strive for greatness and settle for nothing, but that often results in us feeling terrified of getting real jobs. In short, we’re taught that passionless work is NOT necessary.
When we enter our adult years with ambitions to be great novelists, playwrights, musicians, etc., and when our parents and academic institutions have given us a sense of being important, it can be very scary to have to get a boring desk job in order to pay the bills. It can feel like selling out. Other options feel safer: going to Grad school on yet another loan, or living in the red while we home-record an EP…
You seem to have missed the point of the novel, and particuarly the passage I quoted. Marina expresses fear of being “ordinary” - and you are right, she must indeed realize that everyone is ordinary - but the point is she DOES NOT realize this, because she is of a generation that is spoiled and afraid of getting a real job.
I think many of us CAN and should try to rest on our artistic laurels. And those of us who want careers as artists should feel entitled to pursue them. But the fear that Marina faces is genuine: will getting a day job distract her from her oeuvre, or will it make her a better artist? I fall into the latter belief, but there’s certainly an argument for devoting yourself whole-heartedly to your craft. I for one found I let go of a lot of creative blocks simply by taking on some good old minimum wage jobs, stuff I was probably far to educated for. That’s the argument I’m making. No matter how much you must cloister yourself to produce good art, try to keep a balance by keeping some foot in the physical world. That’s not condescending at all. These are ideas about the artistic process.
Posted on March 17th, 2008 at 3:56 pm [permalink]