We live in a world (most of us) that demands that we spend a fair proportion
of our lives earning money - exchanging time + x for money... The vast
inequalities of renumeration being predicated on a scarcely vocalised and
highly complex assumption of worth - the best paid being those who do what
is assumed the most worthy work - and highest on the current list is the
ability to make more money. But that is an aside. Here's another: As I read
back over the few lines I have written I notice the semantic gulf that
subsists between worthy and worth. Ho hum. But my question is, what kind of
work is poetry ?
There is a difference between an art that can be endlessly reproduced, with
no sacrifice in quality (i.e. poetry, scripts, etc ) and that which has to
done anew each time - cleaning, singing, plastering up broken legs or
crumbling walls. This difference lies in the ethics of charging for it.
I am content to accept the system of labour and reward - although vastly
unhappy with current inequalities money can just about be recognised still
as a barter tool. But should art be in the marketplace, particularly, as
above, the writing sort which is so effortlessly copiable. Is it ethical to
try and make money out of one's art ?
Some clarification; I don't have a problem with charging people to come to
poetry workshops, nor with charging them for the labour as well as the
materials involved in publication costs. Charging a fee for a reading seems
reasonable. They are all part of the recompense of time with money paradigm.
Hence the problem I feel emerging is more pressing for word-art: Pottery,
painting and performance can all be charged by the hour, if necessary.
To dip/soar into the world of merest fantasy; If I were to write a book that
I knew would sell half a million copies, what right have I to make the same
amount of profit per copy compared to another book that only sells one
hundred copies. The criterion being that both volumes are art. In the former
case could I not justly be accused of acting in an opportunistic manner to
the detriment of the whole poetic community, and thus, in an ethical sense,
also to myself ? We the communities of poetry writers and readers have
described poetry in many ways, and as many things, but not, surely, as a
product ?
This is not emerging very coherently, but that doesn't surprise me - I am
posting it to the group to see if it touches any thoughts and perceptions
amongst you to help me clarify exactly the nature and scope of my discontent.
yours, Helen F.
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