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current Monday
Report below!
This week's report by Adam Hardin
PRIZES AND IMMORTALITY
What do Kafka, Nietzsche, Emily Dickinson, and William Blake all have
in common? They were little known or completely unknown until after
their death. The sad fact is that in any culture and in any age, great
artists are often ignored or marginalized because their work is so far
out of step with their contemporaries, that their contemporaries fail to
recognize it. Recent examples are the poets Frank Stanford and
Charles Bukowski. Bukowski who died in 1994 is really gaining
ground, and his unpretentious, gritty poetry is growing more popular
year after year. Frank Stanford killed himself at the age of 29. And he
has recognition as a genius from only a handful of people, but people
are catching on quickly.
The thing that you have to remember is that without Max Brod, Kakfa's
friend, we wouldn't have Kafka. Max Brod was ordered by Kafka to
burn most of his work including his two brilliant novels. He refused
and sought publication for them after Kafka's death. Nietzsche's
sister, as awful as she was, was responsible for the Nietzsche
Archive, and preserving his manuscripts. Frank Stanford's poet/friend
C.D. Wright is largely responsible for keeping his name and work alive.
The reverse is that there are so many famous writers who are lauded
in their own day but who thirty years after their death are forgotten
because their work just doesn't stand up. Take a look at the Pulitzer
Prize list. You see Faulkner and Hemingway, and you also see thirty
plus names and books you don't recognize.
You have to ask yourself. Will Michael Chabon, Michael Cunningham,
and Hirman Moody the Third be read in thirty years? I sincerely hope
they enjoy the money and fame. They just don't stand up next to the
masters.
My final point is that we have that power to protect great writers and
deflate the pretenders. That is a good part of being in the
Underground. Making sure that real writers get heard, and poor
imitative thumbsuckers get the intelligent criticism that they deserve.
Writing is about writing, not fame or prizes, and great writing will
stand the test of time.
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