Dennis Cass Wants You To Be More Awesome

I’m not printing the reader question this time because the original e-mail I received was a mini-proposal, and the subsequent exchange is best left summarized. Here’s the gist:

I’m not a writer by trade, but I’m working on a book that will help advance a cause related to my primary career, which is education. I feel very passionately about a certain educational philosophy and would like to see it more widely implemented. In other words, I want to change the world. How do I go about writing and publishing such a book?

I am tempted to temper your expectations with a quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

“Most people would succeed in small things, if they were not troubled with great ambitions.”

But I will not do that, because there are things in this world that undoubtedly need changing, and I see no reason to discourage you. The question is how a book fits into those plans. On that score I offer the following thoughts:

Are you settling an existing argument or starting a new one?

Imagine it’s the 80s and you have a thoughtful, peaceful way of reducing global terrorism. In the United States you would’ve had a very hard time getting people interested in your book or your cause. Terrorism was something that happened somewhere else.

If, on the other hand, it’s the 80s and you have a thoughtful, peaceful way of ending the nuclear arms race, then you fit very comfortably into the existing cultural and intellectual framework.

In the first example, your challenge is to change the conversation entirely. In the second example, your challenge is to beat out the other people who already have turf claims to the conversation. These are two very different jobs. Act accordingly.

How close to the bone is your cause?

Perhaps the most famous world-changing book in the United States is Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (Google Books version here). You cannot read this book and not instinctively cry out for the Meat Inspection Act!

Funnily enough, Sinclair intended the book to explose the plight of the American factory worker, but his original vision was sidelined because tainted meat is more visceral than exploited people.

Education-related causes are tricky because they’re abstract. If you find out your kids are eating maggot-infested school lunch you’ll drop what you’re doing and call the principle. If you find out your kids are enrolled in a language arts program that one study finds is 15% less effective than most language arts programs, then you may do nothing at all.

I’m not saying that the inadequate language arts program isn’t important. It’s just that it doesn’t feel as important. One of your challenges is to figure out how to make your cause feel more immediate.

Does the book have to be a book?

Books are persuasive. But so are documentaries, websites, poster campaigns, etc. If your goal is to be an author whose books affect change, then there is only one path. If the book is simply the means, then the paths are many.

Final thought:

The book is a conversation point, a springboard, a start. But the book can’t do it alone. Books don’t fight your fight for you. You’ll need collaborators, supporters, allies, evangelists, etc.

Ultimately, it all comes down to you. There was a bit in The New Yorker recently about how every public park or national monument happens because one person becomes an enormous pain in the ass for that cause. If I were you, I’d concentrate on how you’re going to be that pain in the ass. If you get a book out of it, then so be it.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

I am honored (and pleased) to be invited to partake in a variety show this Thursday, April 9th at the 7th Street Entry.

Author and musician John Wesley Harding and comedian and author Eugene Mirman are the headliners.

I will be doing a shorter, more absurd version of the HEAD CASE slide show. (There will also be approximately 25% more swearing than usual.)

Also appearing:

Author and musician Laurie Lindeen

Poet Todd Boss

Musician Marc Perlman

Tickets are $15.

Doors are at 8:00 p.m.

Hope to see you there.

A reader writes:

You know, you’ve mentioned this issue of “readiness” in at least a couple of posts now. [ed. note: she is referring to What the @#$%! Am I Doing with My Life] I think intuitively I get this, but maybe you could talk about how to practice and/or recognize readiness. For e.g., I didn’t get why you said in one of your previous posts that you wouldn’t be ready to write a film. But maybe it’s because you haven’t been living the steps that would lead to that?

Great question. Please allow me to respond with a series of questions that you can ask yourself:

1. Am I ready to do the work just once?

Go read the comments section on Nathan Bransford’s blog. There are any number of posters who you can tell are further along in their dreams than they are in their work. (And bless them for it.)

Depending on what you’re doing, you may be in for a long apprenticeship. Would you really want to get your big break if you couldn’t deliver even once?

2. Am I ready to do the work with some frequency and consistency?

You think Genre Writer X is a hack, but she’s producing a book a year. You laugh at the unintentionally funny columnist in your community newspaper, but his work does meet a certain standard.

Even being consistently mediocre is harder than it looks. You may have an excellent spec script for a sitcom, but could you produce 22 episodes a year?

3. Am I ready to handle the attention?

Say you create your breakout work. Good job. So what else do you have?

“What else?” is the first question the gatekeepers ask. If you don’t have a vision for the next thing (and the next and the next) then there is a chance that you’ve wasted that particular opportunity.

4. Am I ready to go out and attract attention?

Actors have it easy. Their need for attention borders on the biological. The rest of us struggle with promotion, self- and otherwise.

It’s not just a matter of being good at radio, TV, print, etc. It’s being able to take a project, put it on your back, and carry it for years.

5. Am I ready to sustain attention?

You’re a success! Enjoy it! You’re a success! Now you have a f*cking target on your back!

Do well and your fans love you, but they also start to raise their expectations. Do well and your critics and enemies are actively trying to take your ass down. How are you going to deal with all that (in public) while also getting the work done?

6. Am I ready to make use of that sustained attention?

I always think of Michael Pollan as a writer who’s not only at the top of his game creatively, but who’s also assumed a leadership role in our culture.

Now we’re talking about the full integration of work, audience, and public profile. We’re talking about having a direct effect on how people talk, think, behave, vote. Are you ready to be at the center of all that?

***

If this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry about it too much. You don’t have a lot of control over how, when or why things happen. We’re all familiar with stories of people for whom success came too fast. We also know people who never got their due.

That said, if you’re starting out and you have grand ambitions, then the aforementioned questions could help you in your quest.

If you want to be the Michael Pollan of sustainable architecture, then there are certain skills that you can practice to help make that happen. Join Toastmasters in order to bone up on your public speaking. Take up podcasting to work on your radio mojo. The big dream is completely impossible, but also eminently doable.

Thanks to everyone who came out last night to see me talk. It was gratifying to see such a positive response.

We’ll explore some of the topics and themes in the coming weeks, but for now here are the links I promised:

2003 How Much Information? Study

2008 How Much Information? Study (results pending)

I Can Has Cheezburger

Top Ten Awesome Bush Shoe-Toss Animated GIFS

No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July

Manbabies

Enjoy the links and check back soon for more moreness.

First, congratulations to President Obama. If there is anything that I can do to help, please let me know.

Second, tonight’s the night for my library talk. Think of it as DCWYTBMA Live! Or DCWYTBMA on Ice!

Here are the deets:

The Always-On Artist: Technology, Creativity and Making Meaning in the 21st Century

Pohlad Hall

Minneapolis Central Library

300 Nicollet Mall

7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

I hope to see you there!

First, thanks to everyone who has contributed to my talk. As I wrap up the writing and start the rehearsing, I’m grateful for your comments and your e-mails.

Final question:

The image of the lone, visionary artist is a powerful one in our culture, even if it’s a recent (post-Baroque period) invention. Do you believe in one person’s ability to change the world with their work? Or has postmodernism/relativism/Internetism changed all that?

Final thought:

I realize these questions are abstract as all get out. Promise the show will be more grounded in example.

Thanks and take care,

Dennis

In 2006, the late David Foster Wallace wrote a story for The New York Times called “Federer as Religious Experience”. In the piece, in the place of the traditional “nut graf” he said this:

Journalistically speaking, there is no hot news to offer you about Roger Federer. He is, at 25, the best tennis player currently alive. Maybe the best ever. Bios and profiles abound. “60 Minutes” did a feature on him just last year. Anything you want to know about Mr. Roger N.M.I. Federer — his background, his home town of Basel, Switzerland, his parents’ sane and unexploitative support of his talent, his junior tennis career, his early problems with fragility and temper, his beloved junior coach, how that coach’s accidental death in 2002 both shattered and annealed Federer and helped make him what he now is, Federer’s 39 career singles titles, his eight Grand Slams, his unusually steady and mature commitment to the girlfriend who travels with him (which on the men’s tour is rare) and handles his affairs (which on the men’s tour is unheard of), his old-school stoicism and mental toughness and good sportsmanship and evident overall decency and thoughtfulness and charitable largess — it’s all just a Google search away. Knock yourself out.

As a postmodernist, DFW is aware of what you’re aware of and he’s going to make you aware of it (and that he’s aware you’re aware).  The point I’m going to make is that even if you don’t have to worry about nut grafs, you still ignore the information/ideas/opinions that are “just a Google search a way” at your peril. Search has raised the bar not only on what can be considered timely, but what can be considered novel, thorough, comprehensive, etc.

Thoughts on this?

As mentioned, I’m giving a talk next Tuesday at the Central Branch of the Minneapolis Public Library as part of their People’s University series.

As mentioned in that aforementioned mention, I am turning to you for help in writing that talk.

One of the threads is about how every writer/artist has to decide their relationship to technology.

Do you live in the cabin in the woods and pretend computers don’t exist?

Or do you embrace blogging, social networking, etc., but only for marketing purposes?

Or do you completely open yourself up to technology, allowing it to inform your work (i.e. by “crowdsourcing” research) and perhaps the very way that you think?

On a related note, does the form/medium/genre/etc. force this choice? (I’m thinking of science fiction, which seems to require a certain amount of transparency in dealing with fans.) Or is a matter of the writer/artist’s own temperament?

Any thoughts/examples/citations/links/references/opinions would be helpful. Also, if the comments section makes you feel shy, you can always e-mail me directly at dennis DOT cass AT gmail DOT com.

Thanks and take care,

Dennis

Attention Twin Cities metro area readers who for some strange reason have a gap in their schedules, and are interested in taking a flyer on a performance by a relative stranger, AND are willing to do so at extremely short notice:

I will be doing my slide show at the Bakken Library and Museum, as part of their Bakken Evening Out program. For those of you who just clicked the link and came back, yes, the Bakken is indeed a small, independent electricity and magnetism museum. You got a problem with that, chief?

I’m actually very excited to do this show. I’ve performed the slide show version of HEAD CASE in bookstores and in libraries, on college campuses and in bars. This time, I’m breaking it up into 15-minute segments that will run on the hour starting at 5:30 p.m.

How will this go? It depends. The show, which is a mock scientific lecture patterned after the real scientific slide shows I watched while researching the book, tends to function on two settings: KILL and EAT IT HARD. (If you come, secretly hope for EAT IT HARD. It’ll be uncomfortable, but human.)

Thanks to everyone who showed up last night for my talk at Eat, Drink & Get Published. I had a lot of fun depressing you. [Wink!]

Also, if you thought of that perfect question to ask me, but didn’t think of it until you were already halfway home, please ask it through this site. My e-mail address is on the Contact page, and not only would I be happy to answer the question because you’re you and you’re wonderful, but you would also be doing me a favor by providing fodder for this blog.

Finally, if you’re interested in learning more about my book, HEAD CASE, I will be doing a show at the Bakken Museum on November 8th. Deets l8r.

Finally-finally, here are three links to three articles that are worth reading:

Have We Reached the End of Book Publishing As We Know It?

Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business

Snack Attack!