Point to ponder

[avevale_intelligencer]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that no-one will ever be in need of a writer.

Discuss, taking care to distinguish between "need" as we might externally perceive it from our civilised standpoint, and need as it would appear to people whose primary concern is survival.

Comments

[catalana.livejournal.com]

I would say that your first sentence is false - I, for one, do not acknowledge that no one will ever be in need of a writer, hence it is not a universally acknowledged truth.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Writers are professional liars. dduane said so. And, of course, I don't acknowledge it as a truth myself. (It is, in fact, about as "universally acknowledged" as the statement originally attached to that tag.)

But it is hard to justify creative writing (which is of course what I'm talking about) in terms of need. Even in Maslow's hierarchy, creativity is only mentioned at the very top of the pyramid, and only in terms of self-actualisation and maximising potential and problem-solving and so on. All very sober and worthy, and not much to do with Right Ho Jeeves or Xena Warrior Princess or anything I might turn out. Comes right down to it, we seem to be more of a want, not a need at all.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure she wasn't the first to say it. I've seen religious tracts which proclaim that all fiction is evil because it's all lies, and heard non-religious people say that giving fiction to children is bad because it teaches them to believe in untruths. It's a hard argument to refute, because looked at in that way it's true. Of course it loses some of its punch when those people lie themselves (how does that verb decline? I am economical with the truth, you prevaricate, he is a liar?)...

Is there a need for professional creators (I'm using the term to include all forms of communicative art, not just the limited writing)? I think there isn't, there are so many amateurs who can do it. There is a demand, yes, but then there is a demand for all sorts of things which aren't actually necessary, because they are wanted or (as you said elsewhere) so common now that people expect them as a 'right', and in particular they are wanted "right now" rather than "when they fit it in with their regular work". I can think of several people I know who create music and visual art as well as writing without pay whose works I enjoy as much and more than most of the professionals in the field. I'm writing in the journal of one of them *g*...

[batyatoon]

I think it was Sir Philip Sidney in his Defense of Poesy (where "poesy" is being used to refer to the broader field of fiction in general) that the poet cannot possibly be called a liar, since he never affirms anything he says to be true.

Giving fiction to children only teaches them to believe in untruths if you teach them to believe anything they read.