
A dirty secret: you can only be a writer if you can afford it - jelliclesfarm
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/27/a-dirty-secret-you-can-only-be-a-writer-if-you-can-afford-it
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cafard
Back when Norman Podhoretz came out with a memoir called I think _Making It_
which mentioned a "dirty little secret" (I'm no longer sure which: maybe that
money got more respect than intellect), somebody, probably _Esquire_ , said
"it may not be dirty, but it sure is little."

Is it a dirty secret that you can only be a yachtsman/fox hunter/back country
skier if you can afford it? Yes, I regard writing as in general a better
activity than those. But I don't have an answer.

~~~
jelliclesfarm
Work and remuneration is different from a living wage.

The way we consider ‘work’ has changed. Working for remuneration is necessary
to exist. This wasn’t so a hundred years ago...’work’ is the new normal. Is
that necessarily a good thing?

Would the next shift change it again?

~~~
Kalium
> The way we consider ‘work’ has changed. Working for remuneration is
> necessary to exist. This wasn’t so a hundred years ago...’work’ is the new
> normal. Is that necessarily a good thing?

In the history I am familiar with, in many places working for remuneration was
typical, common, and even expected a century ago. In most cases a person
either worked for remuneration to provide for themselves or another provided
for them.

Is there some way in which my understanding could stand to be improved?

~~~
AnimalMuppet
I suspect that jelliclesfarm is referring to subsistence agriculture. It's not
"work for remuneration". It is still work, though, of the most backbreaking
kind, and the work is still necessary to exist.

I'm with you: I know of nothing 100 or more years ago where work wasn't
necessary to continue to exist (except among the wealthy, of course).

------
nix23
Joanne Kathleen Rowling says, that title is click-bait ;)

~~~
WesternStar
J.K. could afford it because the U.K. subsidized her life with welfare. There
should be more of that.

~~~
nix23
Dirty secret...theguardian.com is located in the U.K And subsidized is a harsh
word for something that should be normal.

