Memoirous

On Nov. 20, 1970 Schuyler scribbles something about Erikson: Life of Gandhi. Possibly Erik Erikson, Gandhi’s Truth on the Origins of Militant Nonviolence (1969). A psychoanalytical perspective. Earlier that year during the summer while on GSHI Schuyler had penned a diary/letter to Joe Brainard, commenting upon a drawing Joe had sent based upon a photo captioned “Gandhi’s worldly possessions at the time of death” showing two pairs of sandals, glasses, a book, a spittoon, a nailfile, a watch, a bowl, a spoon. In a footnote Kernan (editor of James Schuyler Diary) writes that a various points in his life Brainard was known to suddenly give away all his possessions.                    Marie Kondo would be proud, I guess. From his Diary, I can read that Schuyler loved shopping. He was a fairly flagrant consumer, perhaps an outgrowth of his psychosis. It covered over pressing financial i...

Why do I do this? I often ask myself this. *Not for money. *Not for fame or glory. *Not for world peace. Marie Kondo and her method of sorting out old things or adding new things to your life is very popular right now. Does it bring you joy? I’ve started to apply this philosophy to a lot of things—not just physical stuff in my closet, but the stuff rattling around my brain. How do I feel about my writing? It doesn’t make me rich. In fact, I mostly do not get paid. Yeah, my books receive royalties—but a big return can pretty much neutralize any expected check. At Other Writing  here at my blog you can see a full list of publishing credits. The majority of those have promised NO payment. If I do get paid it is usually less than a couple hundred a year. The worst publications treat my work as “content”—meaning it simply takes up cyber space at their on-line journal or zine. Ditto on fame and world peace. No one cares. So why do I do this thing called writin...