> Throughout this period, Glass supported himself as a New York cabbie and as a plumber, occupations that often led to unusual encounters. "I had gone to install a dishwasher in a loft in SoHo," he says. "While working, I suddenly heard a noise and looked up to find Robert Hughes, the art critic of Time magazine, staring at me in disbelief. 'But you're Philip Glass! What are you doing here?' It was obvious that I was installing his dishwasher and I told him I would soon be finished. 'But you are an artist,' he protested. I explained that I was an artist but that I was sometimes a plumber as well and that he should go away and let me finish."
I think it's okay to complain about the design and presentation of the ads even on a free service. It's unreasonable to expect sites not to have some form of monetization of users that are not going to pay for the content, but that monetization should be reasonable and thoughtful. Of course, we can simply avoid that site altogether.
Lots of engineers write, too. My favorite example of "very different day job" is Gene Wolfe, who worked as an industrial engineer (he famously worked on the original machine that produced Pringles potato chips), and spent most of his working life as an editor of the magazine Plant Engineering.
R. A. Lafferty worked as a full-time electrical engineer for Clark Electrical Supply Company all his life, though he eventually moved to a salesperson position.
You're the second commentor I've read mentioning Gene Wolfe, in the past two days [0]. After I finish my Cormick McCarthy stint, I'll start his The Book of the New Sun this spring.
Vonnegut is among my favorite authors alive during my lifetime — he was a POW during the bombing of Dresden (WWII) — a great drafted veteran friend of mine wouldn't even listen to me discuss Slaughterhouse Five with him until I told him about the author's background (apparently during 'Nam Vonnegut was considered a traitor by draftees?).
All these life experiences — who actually succeeds when their only goal is to become a writer?! Empty words, empty people.
Do you have a better Gene Wolfe introductory recommendation? His 2nd book for me to read?
I’m one of those, although I tend to de-emphasize this fact in most of my social interactions (not just writing related) since people tend to react weirdly to learning that I program computers for a living. Instead, the bio for my writings says, “[he] spends his days as an insignificant cog in the machinery of corporate America.”
I’ve had modest success with a few dozen stories and poems published over the last dozen years, but I don’t expect it will ever be a major source of income for me.
From my impressions so far, writing might be safe for far longer than many of those day jobs. At least provided there are enough people interested in reading good literature and willing to pay for that
Cormac McCarthy appears to be an exceptional case in this respect. I skimmed through a book about it once. Early on he basically earned his keep through grants and book sales. I think he persuaded one of his old ladies to get a job while he wrote. And apparently he was always writing; pitching one book in the middle of working on another. I guess film and television soon followed.
Doesn't sound exceptional to me. Most of the authors I have some personal knowledge of manage through exactly that: spouses, grants, book sales, residencies and teaching creative writing.
Compared to the postal workers, accountants and insurance agents named in this article they can count as exceptions too, save for the creative writing teachers.
I think Don DeLillo quit his job before his first book and never looked back.
McCarthy was famously impoverished for most of his life. He apparently spent most of his money buying books. Late in life, the movie income from No Country for Old Men and The Road made him a multimillionaire, and his spending was apparently quite wild from then on, buying endless amounts of cowboy boots and tweed coats, as well as a large collection of vintage cars. [1]
I actually think being a full-time writer is a more feasible professions today than it probably was a few hundred years ago. On the other hand, back in the 1800s random newspapers would pay for serialized stories. That doesn't really happen anymore (save a few surviving exceptions like the New Yorker) but now we have substack and a ton of other avenues writers can use to keep afloat
If you read John Fante’s Ask the Dust, he has a number of dollar amounts in there for short story sales. Those numbers are better than pretty much every contemporary opportunity without adjusting for inflation. I would say that the 20s and 30s were the ideal time. Right now, it’s pretty grim for nearly all writers. Substack and other venues tend to be kind of peanut money and there are few writers who make a living from them, especially compared to the long tail of those who make nearly nothing. And most of those who earn significant money had big reputations before Substack.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/nov/24/arts.highe...
https://images2.imgbox.com/cc/f9/gX6o2Jfu_o.png
Must be very conducive to reading
Perhaps you would like the archived page instead if you don't have an adblocker, though I recommend installing one.
https://archive.ph/WeRN4
If one day it becomes possible to host a website for free, it would also be reasonable to complain about ads on it.
R. A. Lafferty worked as a full-time electrical engineer for Clark Electrical Supply Company all his life, though he eventually moved to a salesperson position.
Vonnegut is among my favorite authors alive during my lifetime — he was a POW during the bombing of Dresden (WWII) — a great drafted veteran friend of mine wouldn't even listen to me discuss Slaughterhouse Five with him until I told him about the author's background (apparently during 'Nam Vonnegut was considered a traitor by draftees?).
All these life experiences — who actually succeeds when their only goal is to become a writer?! Empty words, empty people.
Do you have a better Gene Wolfe introductory recommendation? His 2nd book for me to read?
[0] first comment <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47125287#47153200>
I’ve had modest success with a few dozen stories and poems published over the last dozen years, but I don’t expect it will ever be a major source of income for me.
I think Don DeLillo quit his job before his first book and never looked back.
[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/two-years-cormac...