Tuesday 16 March 2010

Is this the 1960s...?

So I'm on campus at Bath Spa University, the sun is shining, there's some guy with an acoustic guitar singing songs about how Jesus is going to invade or something, and I feel like I'm living the 1960s education dream...

So far today, that education has taken the form of tutorials with MA students, and it's been interesting how the same issues can crop up. This evening, I'm taking part in a debate on how far, as a creative type, you should think about the realities of the commercial world. How much should it guide what you do and so on. Is it selling your soul to write something because you think it might have a greater chance of selling more copies...?

Personally I think you have to practice the art of holding a paradox in your head - on the one hand to ignore the real world totally, write just what you love, and do it just how you want it, and on the other hand, and at the same time, to have a part of your mind focusing on what is realistic, commercial and viable. And if Alice can believe in six impossible things before breakfast, then a paradox a day should be well within our reach.

3 comments:

Nick Riddle said...

Negative capability! Yes, a neat trick if you can do it. Keats managed it, but the sheer physical effort involved gave him TB. I may have got that wrong.

dex and bebe said...

sometimes though the devil is in disguise. If your heart is 100% in your choice at the time, based on the facts you have, you played him and won.

Marcus Sedgwick said...

I simply don't understand anything any more...