Creation, Or Change?

Quote of the day:
"Of the needs a book has, the chief need is that it be readable."
--Anthony Trollope

Quote of the day no. 2:
“American literary authors have all but abandoned the general reading public, noses upturned.”
--Eric Miles Williamson in the June 4, 2007 Los Angeles Times.

Quote of the day no. 3:
“The more bleak a work of art is, the more hopeful it may actually be--serving as a caution, a warning that we’d better shape up.”
--Williamson

Communication is a two-way street. There is the communicator, and the communicatee. Both parties share both roles. Ideally it would be a 50-50 sharing. But the world is much too interesting a place for that.

At the extremes, some people never speak up and others never shut up. Most of us manage to squeeze in a little listening from time to time, so someone can give us some new material to talk about.

To me, the best preachers, writers and artists know who they are talking to. They see themselves as communicators, and therefore understand that there must be receivers for their transmissions.

Pure art operates on a very different principle. If I am a true artist, I create just according to my own inspiration and ideas. Whether anyone is paying attention does not enter into my act of creation.

If we operate on that pure principle we need to be ready to be ignored. We may publish and even sell books, but the books will wind up on shelves, unread. Or read and misunderstood or forgotten.

Meeting people where they are--speaking their language--is a tough task. But it’s the only way to begin to make a difference--to have a bit of influence on people’s thinking.

So I guess it comes down to the goal. Is it simply creation? Or do you hope to make a difference?