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Editorial. All the World’s a Page: Towards a Definition of ‘Writer’ in an Age of Opportunity

Editorial. All the World’s a Page: Towards a Definition of ‘Writer’ in an Age of Opportunity American, British and Canadian Studies DOI: 10.1515/abcsj-2015-0004 Editorial All the World's a Page: Towards a Definition of `Writer' in an Age of Opportunity Human endeavour is usually understood to be `professional' when it attracts payment. The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, for instance, must surely have sold their wares once they arrived at the fair. Otherwise, rub-a-dub-dub, they would merely have been `three men' in a tub. But as the nursery rhyme makes clear, they were tradesmen. They had careers. They brought to market meat, muffins, wicks and wax. For this, their produce, they received whatever that market would bear. But art is a different matter. Proportionally little art has ever made it to market, with painters, singers, and dancers typically allowing the pleasure of creation to be its own reward. And, of course, the world has known (and, sadly, not known) untold numbers of unpaid writers too. Rather paradoxically, then, `the artist' has always been famous for toiling in obscurity. But the obvious difference between `always' and today is that, in modern times, singers, dancers, writers, and artists of all cast and character have, via the Internet, readily available public outlets for their work. While http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American, British and Canadian Studies Journal de Gruyter

Editorial. All the World’s a Page: Towards a Definition of ‘Writer’ in an Age of Opportunity

American, British and Canadian Studies Journal , Volume 25 (1) – Dec 1, 2015
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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 by the
ISSN
1841-964X
eISSN
1841-964X
DOI
10.1515/abcsj-2015-0004
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

American, British and Canadian Studies DOI: 10.1515/abcsj-2015-0004 Editorial All the World's a Page: Towards a Definition of `Writer' in an Age of Opportunity Human endeavour is usually understood to be `professional' when it attracts payment. The butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, for instance, must surely have sold their wares once they arrived at the fair. Otherwise, rub-a-dub-dub, they would merely have been `three men' in a tub. But as the nursery rhyme makes clear, they were tradesmen. They had careers. They brought to market meat, muffins, wicks and wax. For this, their produce, they received whatever that market would bear. But art is a different matter. Proportionally little art has ever made it to market, with painters, singers, and dancers typically allowing the pleasure of creation to be its own reward. And, of course, the world has known (and, sadly, not known) untold numbers of unpaid writers too. Rather paradoxically, then, `the artist' has always been famous for toiling in obscurity. But the obvious difference between `always' and today is that, in modern times, singers, dancers, writers, and artists of all cast and character have, via the Internet, readily available public outlets for their work. While

Journal

American, British and Canadian Studies Journal – de Gruyter

Published: Dec 1, 2015

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