Joking aside, while there is much to criticize in Roth, his careerism is one of his most admirable qualities. Writing is either a career or it's an aristocratic hobby. If it's an aristocratic hobby, it's closed to most peole.https://twitter.com/kmahaj/status/1378025950789607425 …
-
-
Tangential to the careerist complaint, there is Norman Podhoretz's amazing 1972 argument that the problem with Philip Roth is that he was too PMC (professional-managerial class).pic.twitter.com/ePtPyntBNB
Show this threadThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
It seems that with the massive, pervasive, layoffs in the writing arena, we aren't too far from returning to that detrimental norm.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Roth should have known that the prizes are worthless. Couldn't he just take a look at the Nobel Prizes for literature and seriously ask himself how many of those blokes are still read today? (Hell, they even gave one to Winston Churchill.)
-
Same remark applies for the Pulitzers and most other awards. In the end, they're all meaningless. Just like the French Academy is notorious for having a more illustrious list of writers who never made it in than those who did.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
That's not what "careerism" means, though. It's not "treating something as a career," it's "sacrificing integrity to advance one's career." Sure, there are cases where it's used as a gatekeeping epithet, but there's also fucking people over to get ahead, which Roth clearly did.
-
Also, plenty of women, people of color and workers have been writers without making a career out of it or being aristocrats.
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Agreed. But this panel sprung from the specific question of the ways in which Roth was obsessed with his 'career' LONG AFTER he'd "made it": https://www.bookforum.com/print/2801/the-life-of-philip-roth-and-the-art-of-literary-survival-24390 …
@xlorentzenThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.