Great questions. I retired from a full time job a while ago so now I have a diverse set of projects and activities.
But while I was in the midst of a career I also had a good balance among work, family, and community. HOWEVER, it took me a long time to recognize and appreciate that balance. I had fairly frequent pangs of regret that I was not going "all-in" for my career.
So, part of the struggle for some people may be to recognize that they do in fact live a balanced life and be proud of and grateful for it. I wish I had appreciated my balance much sooner than I did.
What an interesting set of questions! Even so I find myself thinking about an adjacent one--how among my peers and professors it was important to appear to work hard, but only in the right ways. I had a professor in grad school who NEVER closed the door to his office or turned off the light, so it seemed he was always around. But there was a lot of cache in doing a lot and making it look easy. The appearance of hard work has some nuance, I guess.
Very insightful questions. And topical too: got through a busy period and now I can get back to Substack commenting.
In general, I feel like I've negotiated a few of these things successfully, although leaving the country was a part of it. I work at home so that way I can be around my daughter during those fundamental early years. But as a writer whose audience will always be Americans no matter where I go (unless I write in a different language) this demand for constant output you mentioned risks being very taxing on a writer; although compared to YouTube influencers, writers are also a lot luckier. I think this is why American writers love their "Great American Novels" so much. It's tradition, to be sure, but it's also a chance to get as much as you can into a single book to satisfy a certain amount of "intellectual demand" upon the author. It's one of the few ways the relative unsaleability of novellas makes sense when it otherwise does not: after all they are shorter, less time-consuming and cheaper. Theoretically, then, they should be more popular, right? But for readers getting large amounts of either manual or office labor done, a novella feels underwhelming. A Great American novel, in contrast, strikes the average reader as a comparable accomplishment. It feels to the big business deal maker that it's at their level; the same with the guys who build a building. A skyscraper is a greater accomplishment than a roadside chapel, even if the chapel is much prettier; that understanding will be projected upon the novel as well.
As for the extremes, in a sense America has often been a country of extremes. But on the other hand, we also live in extreme times. I don't think how much there is to negotiate for those with only a little money and enormous costs. All I know is that if I had stayed, I'd probably be homeless by now.
Hi Josh,
Great questions. I retired from a full time job a while ago so now I have a diverse set of projects and activities.
But while I was in the midst of a career I also had a good balance among work, family, and community. HOWEVER, it took me a long time to recognize and appreciate that balance. I had fairly frequent pangs of regret that I was not going "all-in" for my career.
So, part of the struggle for some people may be to recognize that they do in fact live a balanced life and be proud of and grateful for it. I wish I had appreciated my balance much sooner than I did.
What an interesting set of questions! Even so I find myself thinking about an adjacent one--how among my peers and professors it was important to appear to work hard, but only in the right ways. I had a professor in grad school who NEVER closed the door to his office or turned off the light, so it seemed he was always around. But there was a lot of cache in doing a lot and making it look easy. The appearance of hard work has some nuance, I guess.
Very insightful questions. And topical too: got through a busy period and now I can get back to Substack commenting.
In general, I feel like I've negotiated a few of these things successfully, although leaving the country was a part of it. I work at home so that way I can be around my daughter during those fundamental early years. But as a writer whose audience will always be Americans no matter where I go (unless I write in a different language) this demand for constant output you mentioned risks being very taxing on a writer; although compared to YouTube influencers, writers are also a lot luckier. I think this is why American writers love their "Great American Novels" so much. It's tradition, to be sure, but it's also a chance to get as much as you can into a single book to satisfy a certain amount of "intellectual demand" upon the author. It's one of the few ways the relative unsaleability of novellas makes sense when it otherwise does not: after all they are shorter, less time-consuming and cheaper. Theoretically, then, they should be more popular, right? But for readers getting large amounts of either manual or office labor done, a novella feels underwhelming. A Great American novel, in contrast, strikes the average reader as a comparable accomplishment. It feels to the big business deal maker that it's at their level; the same with the guys who build a building. A skyscraper is a greater accomplishment than a roadside chapel, even if the chapel is much prettier; that understanding will be projected upon the novel as well.
As for the extremes, in a sense America has often been a country of extremes. But on the other hand, we also live in extreme times. I don't think how much there is to negotiate for those with only a little money and enormous costs. All I know is that if I had stayed, I'd probably be homeless by now.