There is a certain pathos in the practice of the literary arts. You spend hours alone, locked away from loved ones and friends and colleagues (oh, how I have sometimes yearned for a colleague). When you come out, you’re often in a bad mood, having just spent hours measuring yourself against an impossible ideal. And nowadays being a writer means struggling to find time to write in the cracks of the day, between job and family (or worse, errands! getting the clutch fixed, picking your kids up from school, buying toothpaste) — only the very young or the extremely lucky get to write stress free. This is an interview with 3AM Magazine editor, reviewer, author Andrew Gallix who despite the gallant teaser below has not escaped the wars unscathed. The interview is part of series at Full Stop on the consequences of following the writing trade.
dg
Sartre claimed that he began writing to make up for his ugliness and impress women. We all want to be loved, and writing is always a love letter of sorts. As Richard Brautigan put it, “Just because people love your mind, doesn’t mean they have to have your body” — but one lives in hope, of course.
So true!