Despite its conveniences, the 21st century does have weak points, at least to many. One of these is the drift of all life toward corporatization. Many people object to a world in which what ought to be made with passion is increasingly made with passion for nothing but a product's profitability. An exception to faceless corporate publishing, independent book publishers reflect the tradition of boutique houses each trying to find their own voice.
The ultimate difference between independent and corporate owned publishing is that the former has at its core someone who got into the business out of a genuine love of books. Still better would be someone driven by a real love of literature, but maybe one should not demand too much. This gives some hope that more thoughtful decisions will be made about which books get published and which do not.
It is not at all unusual to find small publishing houses owned and largely staffed by graduates of Master's of Fine Arts programs. Many of these might have entered their program hoping to produce work so exceptional so soon that they would end up teaching their art on the college or elite high school level. This fortune befalls few today, leaving graduates seeking employment that will keep them fed while writing their poetry or crafting their sculpture.
With the growth in MFA graduates, there simply are not nearly enough teaching jobs to create any reasonable expectation of an academic career. This situation is compounded by the deepening crisis of the shrinking audience for the fine arts overall. It has become increasingly obvious that the arts must be fought for in the public sphere.
A growing number of graduates sees the business side of art not just as a fallback to the academy but as the arts' true battlefield in this century. Too few without gray hair seem to be visiting the symphony anymore. More MFA programs each year offer courses in the production of little magazines and small volumes of poetry.
Technology, especially consumer electronics, is assigned much of the blame. Doubtless it has given billions of people worldwide easy access to the arts. However, on the whole it has made it more difficult, not less, to make a living as any sort of artist.
Some have warned of a possibly enduring result of modern electronically enhanced, big budget art, a result that should warn of a possibly grim future. There is evidence of a general fraying of the attention span, a decrease in the patience to focus. The grand, slow pacing of 1960s and 1970s films, those remembered for their cinematography, is lost on many young people. A three movement symphony simply has no chance to win someone with such over-stimulated nerves.
21st century technology takes, but it also gives new opportunities, some with great potential. Indie publishers might like to hearken back to the 1920s, and its heroic little magazines. Meanwhile, the future of the arts might belong to the self-publisher, building his or her book entirely online, who might not even have an MFA.
The ultimate difference between independent and corporate owned publishing is that the former has at its core someone who got into the business out of a genuine love of books. Still better would be someone driven by a real love of literature, but maybe one should not demand too much. This gives some hope that more thoughtful decisions will be made about which books get published and which do not.
It is not at all unusual to find small publishing houses owned and largely staffed by graduates of Master's of Fine Arts programs. Many of these might have entered their program hoping to produce work so exceptional so soon that they would end up teaching their art on the college or elite high school level. This fortune befalls few today, leaving graduates seeking employment that will keep them fed while writing their poetry or crafting their sculpture.
With the growth in MFA graduates, there simply are not nearly enough teaching jobs to create any reasonable expectation of an academic career. This situation is compounded by the deepening crisis of the shrinking audience for the fine arts overall. It has become increasingly obvious that the arts must be fought for in the public sphere.
A growing number of graduates sees the business side of art not just as a fallback to the academy but as the arts' true battlefield in this century. Too few without gray hair seem to be visiting the symphony anymore. More MFA programs each year offer courses in the production of little magazines and small volumes of poetry.
Technology, especially consumer electronics, is assigned much of the blame. Doubtless it has given billions of people worldwide easy access to the arts. However, on the whole it has made it more difficult, not less, to make a living as any sort of artist.
Some have warned of a possibly enduring result of modern electronically enhanced, big budget art, a result that should warn of a possibly grim future. There is evidence of a general fraying of the attention span, a decrease in the patience to focus. The grand, slow pacing of 1960s and 1970s films, those remembered for their cinematography, is lost on many young people. A three movement symphony simply has no chance to win someone with such over-stimulated nerves.
21st century technology takes, but it also gives new opportunities, some with great potential. Indie publishers might like to hearken back to the 1920s, and its heroic little magazines. Meanwhile, the future of the arts might belong to the self-publisher, building his or her book entirely online, who might not even have an MFA.
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