How to Avoid Making Art, and a New Book by Someone Who Hasn't
Categories: Movies & Books , Fiction
It was kind of nice to read two books in a row that I could get through in a single sitting. The first is Julia Cameron's 2005 book of cartoons, How to Avoid Making Art (or Anything Else You Enjoy). The suggestions are funny but sobering, since I've independently discovered them all on my own. Hang out with time-consuming people. Think about your novel instead of writing it. Write emails (or blogs) instead of your novel. Tell yourself your job makes it too hard to write. Tell yourself you've missed the boat and are too old anyway.
Sort of related is Charles Webb's Home School, a sequel to his 1963 The Graduate. It's 11 years later, and Richard Nixon is president. Benjamin and Elaine are happily married, living outside New York City. Benjamin works as a library shelver (yay!), but mostly, they devote their lives to homeschooling their 2 sons. Note that homeschooling once seemed stranger than it does now. They haven't seen Elaine's mother in 7 years. That, of course, is just about to change.
Perhaps you've also read the occasional article about Charles Webb's difficult life over the years, like this one from the North Korea Times (which I'm pretty sure has nothing to do with North Korea). According to this entry in the Thoughtcat Blog, Charles Webb and his partner are doing better--and certainly they must be doing a lot better now that his new book is out.
What makes this book a fast read is its dialogue, and here's an example from the very beginning.‘
Excuse me,’ the woman said, ‘but aren’t you the people who took your children out of school?’
Elaine looked back without answering.
‘You’re teaching your boys at home.’
‘That’s right.’
It was quiet a moment, then the woman said, ‘I assume you know what you’re doing . . .’
‘I think so.’
‘I hope so,’ she said, ‘because our daughter was home from college and said if we’d done that to her she’d never have spoken to us again.’
A response came to Elaine’s mind, which she suppressed, at least to begin with, and if the woman had said no more Elaine’s statement would have remained unuttered. Unfortunately, however, she did say more.
‘I asked Claire – what in the world could motivate parents to deprive their children of the happiest experience of their lives?’ She looked at Elaine a moment longer,
then pushed her cart past her and toward the bakery section.
‘Excuse me,’ Elaine said after her, ‘did you want an answer?’
The woman stopped, turning to look back. ‘Not necessarily.’
‘We took them out so they wouldn’t grow up to be bankers.’...
And then, over the course of the months that followed, she came to regret the comment on less philosophical grounds, as in the minds of their neighbors, and of the town collectively, the belief became current that Elaine and her husband had in fact removed their children from school to prevent them from entering the banking profession.
