Comments on: A Short Discourse on Competitive Works

By: Drunk Wifes

Drunk Wifes — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:45:09 +0000

nice! i’m gonna make my own blog

By: denniscass

denniscass — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:43:15 +0000

In an earlier draft of this post I had a “crowds are good for you” entry. Sometimes you don’t want to be first. Sometimes walking in “late” means you benefit from entering an ongoing conversation. There’s an audience, context, etc.

Part of your job as a player in the culture game is having a read on the particular situation you’re entering. In this case, our reader’s first read was the wrong one. The doc-in-the-works doesn’t pose a threat. With a different set of circumstances she might have been right.

By: Lars

Lars — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:24:02 +0000

Lee raises a key question. If you see similar works out there, is yours offering too little, too late? Or (thinking more positively) is it providing the critical mass for an emerging trend? Only one way to find out.

Also, because I am a bit of a chess nerd, I will share this quote from Tartakower, the 19th century grandmaster and chess journalist: “No one ever won a game by resigning.”

By: Lee

Lee — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:50:02 +0000

I think the competitive work scenario has a positive side. Particularly when the works concern a not very well known subject, one of them can whet the public’s appetite for more. I’m sure this is the theory behind the slew of books that always come out around any major new event. No doubt someone’s treatise on Indian slums is selling better because of Slumdog Millionaire. The public’s reaction to that competitive documentary may be “I want to know more!” and a book might be just the thing for that.

By: Dennis Lang

Dennis Lang — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 02:34:31 +0000

Fair enough.

By: denniscass

denniscass — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 02:26:38 +0000

. . . wouldn’t fit in a comment. Maybe some other time.

By: Dennis Lang

Dennis Lang — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:28:12 +0000

…and the hardest part?

By: denniscass

denniscass — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:24:29 +0000

My struggles to complete HEAD CASE were many and varied. Worrying about the competition turned out to be the easy part.

As for the confidence issue, I’d lump that in with #1. Only you see your work the way you see your work. (That’s also true for what’s good about it.)

By: Dennis Lang

Dennis Lang — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:16:56 +0000

Beautiful–and reassuring. Were there many times you had talked yourself out of persistng with “Head Case”? And in addition to the reservations you’ve mentioned, as we set the bar increasingly higher for ourselves how often do we become convinced whatever we’re attempting just isn’t good enough? The latest “New Yorker” article on David Foster Wallace, through the exchange with his editor and others, seems to capture his personal anguish at wrestling with the problems the idea for his last unfinished novel presented.