“Art is made by those who consider themselves to have failed at whatever isn’t art. And of course it is loved as consolation, or a call to arms by those who feel the same. One of the reasons there seem to be fewer readers for literature today than there were yesterday is that the concept of failure has been outlawed. If we are all beautiful, all clever, all happy, all successes in our own way, what do we want with the language of the dispossessed?
But the nature of failure ensures that writers will go on writing no matter how many readers they have. You have to master the embarrassments and ignominies of life.”
– Howard Jacobson. A mediation on failure.
[Photo: Hour one. Rishikesh, India//Grace Farson]
GRACE FARSON 