Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.
— George Bernard Shaw
via cliftonburt & danieleatock.com
“Perhaps there is no perfect word for the kind of people I have raised my children to be: a word that encompasses obsessive scholarship, passionate curiosity, curatorial tenderness, and an irrepressible desire to join in the game, to inhabit in some manner—through writing, drawing, dressing up, or endless conversational riffing and Talmudic debate—the world of the endlessly inviting, endlessly inhabitable work of popular art. The closest I have ever come for myself is amateur, in all the best senses of the word: a lover; a devotee; a person driven by passion and obsession to do it—to explore the imaginary world—oneself. And if we must accept the inevitable connotation of hopeless ineptitude that amateur carries, then at least let us stipulate that we shall be hopeless and inept like Max Fischer, the hero of Wes Anderson’s Rushmore: in the most passionate, heedless, and whole-hearted way”
Michael Chabon: We’re All Amateurs Here (via robotjohnny)
I’ll reblog anything with Max Fischer and Michael Chabon automatically.
Speaking of permission, my pal Clifton Burt reminds me of this Sonic Youth poster.
There’s an industry emerging. Or at least a class of communicators. Get ready for an industry that gives meek creative folk permission to do what they already wanted to do and had the means to do. Real middlemen give permission. And then, if they really want to make some money, they’ll give tips and trips and lifehacks (vomit-inducing word for me) about how to get done what you want to do. It’s creative therapy. Take a seat on the couch.
On one hand, I’m totally distraught by this. What an awful condition, right? Why wait for permission? And what gives some the authority to do so?
On the other hand, if creatives are so meek as to need that permission, if that’s what some have to do to get some awesome stuff made, sign me up to shout from the rooftops.
What I’m saying is:So, in regards to the last post I put here: I wonder what other professions are a natural funnel for people with certain personality traits? What careers have good people flock to them, or do an excellent job of weeding out the undesirables? More importantly, can this information be useful to me in making new friends and learning new and interesting things?
Does archaeology attract a certain type of person I’d get along with? What about botanists? Mathematicians? Car salesmen? Clarinetists? Astronauts? Would I make a lot of great friends if I knew more astronauts? (Of course I would.)
There’s a lot of personality tests out there that gauge a person’s tolerances and traits, then makes suggestions for careers. But seeing how so many careers are indicative of the traits of its practitioners, it’d be cool to take a test and have it tell you “You’d get along well with fiction writers, appliance repairmen, butchers and filmmakers. But you should avoid beat poets, lawyers, car salesmen, high school guidance counsellors and professional poker players.”
Note: Stereotypes. Blah blah blah.
