In message <Pine.GSO.3.95-960729.980218172008.2755R-
[log in to unmask]>, R I Caddel <[log in to unmask]> writes
>- there you go again, setting me off: Motion seems to get paid
>handsomely for *everything*: writing, reading, talking about it, just
>being such a fabulous person! Do I resent this? Yes, and so do you, but
>we mightn't so much if the range of writing thus adulated and rewarded
>was broader...
>
Well yes I'm standing in line for my bit of adulation & have been here
quite a while - but, seriously, do you believe that Motion or
practically anybody else gets paid 'handsomely' for his work as a poet,
I mean as distinct from his other literary activities? I doubt it, and
not because I know or want to know anything about his personal finances.
I suspect that sales & therefore royalties on even upmarket poetry books
are relatively low; their upmarketness being mostly due to the self-
determination of publicity. And yes that gets your goat & mine,
particularly if we find some poet's work unadmirable. But I do think
this linking of literary quality to business ethics is an unnecessary
confusion. Best, A
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