dagblog - Comments for "Turning Down the Imaginary Car (Advice from Actors to Academics, Part 2)"

Practicality and being clear

MrSmith1 — Sat, 22 Nov 2014 04:21:25 +0000

In reply to Turning Down the Imaginary Car (Advice from Actors to Academics, Part 2)

Practicality and being clear-headed about your options is always an asset. On the other hand, isn't some amount of delusion necessary for anyone trying to get ahead in any profession but particularly in show business? Knowing that you have to work hard and have more than a bit of luck in order to succeed is all well and good, but the actor is dealing with people evaluating his looks constantly, and most often what he has to offer is rejected. How does an actor continue on, if not by employing some delusion? How does a boxer get back into a ring after a devastating loss without a measure of delusion? They tell themselves the loss was due to some extenuating circumstance, not their personal lack of ability. How else can ordinary humans continue on in their day to day lives? Most must dredge up some small level of delusion. It is human nature, not to fix permanent blame for our defeats on ourselves and / or our inadequacies. How else can anyone go on? We all strive and most of us, at some point in that striving, have lost. How do we get back up and go on other than to tell ourselves that next time we will succeed. That next time we will do things differently. That this failure was the outlier, not the norm. That this Broadway defeat is okay, because there is always Summer Stock. It's not a substitute for hard work, it's the imaginary carrot that keeps the cart moving down the path towards success.

Thanks. I don't mean to deny

Doctor Cleveland — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 04:21:29 +0000

In reply to The advice here is timeless,

Thanks. I don't mean to deny that there have been terrible and wrong-headed structural changes to these professions. And I certainly don't think this is the way things ought to be. But these posts (which aren't mostly aimed at the main Dagblog readership) are aimed at people trying to navigate the ugly academic job search as it currently exists.

I think this is a bad time for culture, and more broadly bad times for the educated middle class. The mania for reducing labor costs has long since reached the professions; white-collar workers are being squeezed just as blue-collar workers have been. So it's tough out there for lawyers. But that means, as you say, that the educated middle class which provides most of the audience and many of the artists, is going hungry.

The advice here is timeless,

Michael Maiello — Tue, 18 Nov 2014 14:23:09 +0000

In reply to Turning Down the Imaginary Car (Advice from Actors to Academics, Part 2)

The advice here is timeless, I just think the situation has gotten a lot worse since it was written. You could make a living doing equity theatre,for example, more easily even two decades ago than you can today. People aren't turning out as much anymore. Expenses are up, revenues down. You used to be able to make a living as a mid-list author. Or, you could be a mid-list author and also teach at a college that would be happy to have you. And, about those colleges and universities...

We don't seem to worry so much about the hollowing out of the creative and thoughtful fields but they have not been unaffected by what happened to American manufacturing. Heck, the lack of reasonably well compensated tradespeople who might want to take a course in Shakespeare at night or see a play or buy a book might be a big part of the problem.

You're describing reality very well. Beyond this being a time where hopefuls have to get over their delusions and pretensions, I think it's fair to say that these are bad times for culture.