Aug 28 2008
Dealing with the Mediocre
One of my favorite movies is Amadeus. I’ve seen the theatrical production, too, but I admit I LOVE the movie (it combines fabulous costumes, great acting, and magnificent music, so how could it not be one of my favorites?). I believe, despite all its other qualities, what draws me into the movie so much is the character of Salieri, who is upset by his own “mediocre” talents when he compares them to Mozart’s inate musical genius.
Yet, at the end of the film (spoiler alert!) he embraces his own mediocrity, as well as the mediocrity of the world around him. He is able to deal humorously with the truth of his existence, that it isn’t as memorable and magnificent as he would have wished. He knew, even before his life was over, that he would not go down in history as one of the greatest composers who ever lived.
How many writers realize this, I wonder? I am a HUGE fan of older classics, tending to enjoy works more than 100 years old far more than works just published. Why is that? Is it because I am caught up in the past, entranced by a world that is no longer in existence? Do I wish I could dress in a corset, walk around and visit neighbors all day, holding a frilly parasol and wearing some cute hat.
Okay, so maybe a little. But I could do that if I wanted, even now. And I don’t.
It’s not the charm of an old world that draws me in. Think about this. Far more writers wrote in the past, yet very few of them wrote works truly worth immortalizing. Even Dickens, who wrote some of my favorite novels, also wrote a lot of other things which are not nearly so appealing. I have a collection of his Christmas stories, and aside from A Christmas Carol, which is still highly popular today, the other stories really aren’t that good.
In effect, most of what was written in the past was mediocre. And that is why it does not survive today. That is why some Renaissance plays are NEVER performed…they really aren’t that good.
Today’s fiction, plays, and poetry have not been through the weeding-out that time provides. I am currently reading a Newbery winner, Criss Cross, and I assume that in a hundred years its Newbery status will be the only way it survives. It simply isn’t that good. And it is only one of countless mediocre books which will disappear as time moves on. In a hundred years–in FIVE hundred years–what will have survived? I would estimate that only 10% of the recently written stuff I have read will last through the next 100 years. Perhaps less.
And more than likely, what I write will disappear with the 90%, and not survive. And, looking down from heaven, I’ll be reconciled to that in the same way Salieri was. I might, like Salieri, realize it in my own lifetime.
But that isn’t what he attempted, to be mediocre. And that won’t be what I strive for, either. Who knows? Maybe I’ll turn out to be a Mozart. Or a Shakespeare. Or a Jane Austen.
I’ll just have to see how far I can go.
I absolutely agree. That’s why publishing has never been my goal. I *want* to write something excellent, something special, something timeless.
Will I succeed? The odds aren’t good. But they go higher if that’s what I’m striving for than if I’m willing to jot off something I can managed to get published, but that will be forgotten weeks later.
If I demand as much as I can for myself, I may not pass the test of time, but I will have written the best stuff I can. Heck, even Salieri had that.
Hey, I’m thinking of starting a blog here myself. What are your thoughts?
There are an awful lot of things that we still read - at least in academia - that strike me as not only just “not that good” … but as awful … Caleb Williams comes to mind.
Some of it just comes down to what makes it onto the syllabus and doesn’t ever get removed, I think.
It would be interesting to know what - if any - of the scads of drivel that gets posted on the Internet will stand the test of time… of even a very few years. An awful lot of what I have read over the last while hasn’t even been worth the few seconds it took to skim enough to determine that it was time to move on …. and yet it has an audience of sorts…
And of course, you should start a blog, Steph
But then you already knew my opinion.
I’ve commented so late that you’ve already started a blog. Yay!
And Flit, I haven’t read Caleb Williams…honestly, there is so much I haven’t read. But I don’t have the time to read everything, and reading one lame novel tends to make me less likely to pick something up right away. I finished Criss Cross, and the end was just about as lame as the beginning. A waste of time.
Now I need to get reading my textbook, so I can write my syllabus for class! (Work! Work! Work!)