Is this not the same distinction often made between those in the journalism school (the PW track in particular) and those in the English department (creative writing)?

I think the rift is very real and we are all aware of it on some base level, even if we have never thought about it enough to put it into words.  I don’t know if I feel that the system is quite as unfair as Mr. Stephenson suggests, though that may be because I am in the Beowulf camp.  I think both types of writers serve a purpose.  Those purposes are very different, however, so it should be expected that the writers’ means of supporting their craft be different as well. 

I like the way he compares university grants with the patronage of old.  I have often thought life would be so much simpler if I had a patron to support my work but he raises the point that, were that the case, I would be writing for that person, rather than appealing to a mass audience.  Such a task, while intriguing, no doubt, to those in the English department, fills me with worry.  I don’t doubt that literary writers have a passion for their work, but it is a wholly different type of passion: a whole other beast, as I am fond of saying.

Stephenson suggests that patrons in the renaissance, and wealthy individuals today, support artists out of a sort of moral obligation; serving the greater good.  I believe that literary writers must write (I say must because I can not speak from experience so I assume) out of a similar sense of obligation.  They write to better the world, I write to better today.  I am almost positive that, no matter how famous I become, nobody 100 years from now will have read any of my work.  But that’s okay with me because that is not my purpose.  In the same way, I doubt the great literary writers of our time sit in front of their computers wondering how best to entertain their audience.  They serve a larger purpose.  Maybe the system isn’t completely fair but I don’t think it’s all that bad either.

~Mary~

PS: I have the funny feeling that I’ve completely missed the point but that’s never stopped me from putting my two cents in before.  J