Choose Art, Choose Life. part 1 of occasional thoughts about writing The Drama
Ignore the Snake-Oil Merchants.
I don’t give advice on the arts. It’s up to you to decide how to make your art. To have the inspiration to make art is a great gift, and I feel it behoves you to make use of that gift however you choose. But I do get frustrated by those who don’t ever get the chance to make use of the impetus they’re gifted with to create something for the world. And I get positively angry on behalf of those who get sucked into seeking success in this Arts Industry without ever having been encouraged to explore and understand the artistic heart of what they do first. Even more concerning is that artists get directed along a path where the routes to the more fundamental ideas are not made clear or hidden behind a smokescreen of judgement by their ostensible Betters. The thorny path of sales and spurious awards. And so they chase the will o’the wisp of Success without ever stopping to think about what Success could actually mean. Meanwhile, the snake-oil sellers, the agents and advice peddlers act as gatekeepers promising them riches and fulfilment provided they pay the toll to enter their promised land. I want to shout after the chasers after this bogus dream of success “Why? “Why are you doing this?”
“Why are you giving up so much of your time and mental energy chasing Success in terms of goals set by others. Have you ever considered that success in the arts could be measured differently?”
Of course, you know what success is – a thousand copies of your self-published novel sold on Amazon, an award in a poetry competition you had to pay to enter, a glowing review for a ten minute play that cost you a tenner for the privilege of having it read by someone who’s never been in a theatre in their lives. And, in all these cases, the only ones not to have gained in any meaningful way is the artists themselves. Success, in these cases, is limited to the self-proclaimed Industry influencers who are taking the creators for every penny they can. So, why are the creators participating in this pyramid sales scam in which they form the bottom tier?
In the venal, utilitarian world that is the twenty-first century, artists have been convinced that they are, or should be, part of a monolithic Arts Industry and in the service of which they hurl themselves like Morlochs servicing a machine that spits out promises of rewards if they conform to the demands of producing the next Harry Potter or Abba musical. But the work is hard and, in the end, the creative input is no different from the drudgery of a call centre or serving behind a fast food counter. The world of drudgery that so many seek to escape by expressing inward feelings in words or paint is mirrored in the Arts Industry. Workers at the coal face are burnt out and drained of any creativity within a short time even if they are serious practitioners and seekers after Arts Truth. I was reading a recent John le Carre novel and, while five of his first novels defined a whole genre of fiction, the later ones are derivative and read like pastiches of the ideas that were once so new. The need to earn a living is the curse of artists since time immemorial but today, there is something even more insidious - the need to be recognised by the so-called Arts Industry.
The curse of the Arts Industry is Content Creation. Make more. Work harder. Repeat and repeat and repeat. Above all, repeat what has been shown to be a success already. Any innovation will see you dropping down the Amazon list. The algorithm is insatiable and relies on the creator doing more of the same and thinking less and less.
The danger signals are Genre and Pastiche. These are arbitrary divisions devised by the exploiters and are the death of the creative instinct and flair. Once you can identify which genre you are writing in, then you will inevitably fall into writing something that has been written a thousand times before.
And all reinforced by those who would traffic the idea that this Success can be bought. And the more the artist is persuaded to dig in their pockets the quicker this Success will come. The Arts Industry is a pyramid scam on a massive scale with the creator on the bottom tier.
I didn’t become conscious that there was such a thing as an Arts Industry until the days of Covid. I have worked in the arts all my adult life as a theatre director, writer, performer and belonged to a family which we jokingly referred to as Show Business. But to receive public money we were expected to produce work with serious Artistic intent. Of course, we had a lot of fun on the way and, I hope, bought entertainment and release to our audiences but we knew all along that there was something else, something more fundamental, for which theatre was intended.
The invention of the Arts Industry as it is understood at the moment, was a necessary adjustment in a time of crisis. To persuade a philistine government that the arts needed to be supported through the pandemic they had to don the robes of Gradgrind and show themselves to be business-like if heroic machine operators. It worked to a certain extent but it became apparent that support was going to be for organisations and managers with almost none trickling down to the creative individuals who the actual foundation of the enterprise. Now, just as in the “Education Industry” and “The Health Industry”, the Arts are driven by what is called “Value Creation.” In other words, a profit centre spinning gold out of base metal.
Of course, there has always been an Arts Industry. Artists have always been at the beck and call of their sponsors. A multitude of actors, dancers, technicians do make a living out of appearing in West End musicals day after day. Many make Netflix series or win Baftas. Many write novels or paint or sculpt but, as many of us have found, the creators themselves are expendable. There is a huge drop in jobs in this industry (35,000 in 2023 according to “The Stage”) and a frightening drop of 50% from working class backgrounds since the 1970s. The vultures circle and pick off those who feel the need to offer their creativity to the world so set your value and your price high.
As I said at the beginning, it’s up to you to work as you see fit. But I am concerned for the well-being of those who are being sold this sort of dream that will almost inevitably end in disappointment. And which will become a self-replicating virus that will go on to goes on to infect others who are following. Even those that do succeed in this limiting field will grow tired. This will inevitably lead to the drying up of the endeavour that is the arts. Artists in future will grow tired of a past time that leads to only one standard of outcome. We see this in the scientific field where original research is squashed by the need to publish. And the success of publication means pressure to produce results that can be sold to industry. Real, creative Blue Sky research is depressed by the need to produce the next wonder face cream or bigger, more expensive particle collider.
So how could you measure success in a different way? And here I am not stamping on your desire or your ability to sell thousands of copies of your latest blockbuster or win all sorts of awards. Fill your boots if you can. But what else could we define as success, if we don’t measure it by thousands of books sold or Baftas won or appearances on daytime TV?
I am suggesting that by measuring your work in a different way, you are fulfilling the basic necessity of what Art is and you could derive the benefit of making a real contribution to humanity.
First let me give you my entirely personal definition of the arts. This is what guides the rest of what I have written here.
The arts are an imaginative and emotional human response to the world around. They try to understand the condition of being human in that world and convey that to others. And while science records, the arts speculate and to try to enter the mind of another being, seeing as they see and speaking as they speak. God knows, we need that now. Human beings are fuelled by curiosity and the Arts can supply news about what possibilities lie round the corner. They try to prioritize the importance of ideas and forecast the way humans will react in given situations. They interpret our actions and motivations to each other. At base they try to understand what it is to be human.
Art is a big Thing. It is an important thing. It encompasses philosophy, psychology, sociology and politics. It tries to moderate thinking of audiences by allowing them to walk in the shoes of others. To understand what it is to see differently or to have a life made up of different experiences from our own. The arts can provide warnings of dangers not otherwise forecast, of explanations of things happening around. The arts can explore the dark corners of the world and wrestle with the sheer bloody randomness of existence. And they can bring joy and whisk us away from the humdrum and quotidien. It is also an emotional release and a catharsis, and a bringing together to tell people in an audience “You are not alone. And You matter.”
The Arts may be defined by the same search for truth that Science aims for. For me, artists should challenge themselves to understand the human condition and seek to convey it to others who do not have the time or the inclination to do so. The artist should be an explorer in the dense thickets of human interaction. For an artist the worse advice is to create from what you know. It is only through the knowledge that the artist gains of the world by excavating new places and walking with unexpected characters that they can gain the knowledge that they are to share with the rest of the human race. The fun part of being an artist is to ask the question “What If…?” and follow the trail wherever that leads.
The metric should not be “how many copies have you sold?” but “What have what you’ve done to change somebody’s life?” “Have you found something new about yourself or about the world around?” “How is your work different from everybody else’s?”
If you are an artist (and only you can decide that) then you have a gift and a duty to use that gift to create art. Something that hums and thrums along the veins and arteries of your audience. If your art doesn’t do that then you may have to try harder. Every morning you wake up and see a big art shaped hole in the day. It is your duty to fill that. You may look back on the day and see that you have managed to fill that gap in reality with your efforts. Tick.
But this is a light duty. It is necessary to your well-being, like eating and drinking or scratching an itch. It becomes absorbing and enjoyable. The best way to produce art is to have fun.
Our job as artists, as I see it, is to avoid the well trodden paths and head for the undergrowth where some interesting human truth may be hidden.
To have the gift of creativity is a privilege. The artists and creators are the way finders and guides for humanity. In days gone by they may have been thought of as shamen enabling those who come after to see the world anew. Artists are necessary to the well-being of a nation and require the infrastructure to explore new ideas. They are not beggars but a vital component of any society.
Ask the question - are you using your creative instinct for your own benefit or for the benefit of humanity? Are you just trying to rid yourself of some uncomfortable dead weight that lies heavy in your stomach like an over indulgence in beer and jam roly-poly or because you genuinely want to explain and share some tiny shaded corner of human experience that only you have access to? Go for it. At the moment the world is desperate for artists like you to speak with sensitivity and nuance and be heard above the storm of aggressive confrontation.
Eventually you will find a way through the undergrowth. Remember, you are the true worker for the good of the planet. Value your work. Value the effect of your work. Value the work of other artists. Interact with the world. Make friends. Make enemies. Find out how the blood flows. Drink coffee. Listen to the buzz of conversations. Observe. Join with other artists. Set your own metrics. And, if you achieve them, award yourself a gold medal or a little statue. Find out new things and beware the snake-oil sellers who are lurking out there.
