Came across this quote over at The Whole Garden Will Bow (whose excellent byline is hip est corpus). Blew my mind.
“The trap of reputation, for example. In this scenario, having garnered a considerable reputation or level of acclaim, one becomes paralyzed by the dreadful thought of losing it all by doing something… undignified. Uncool. This is a trap. Reputation is a trap that will turn you into a lifeless marble bust of yourself before you’re even dead. And then of courses there is reputation’s immortal big brother, Posterity, worrying about which has driven better women and men than you into the asylum. All these things… reputation, posterity, cool… should be tested to destruction by a course of deliberate sabotage. As the often-illuminating Escape and New Musical Express cartoonist Shaky Kane once remarked, “Don’t be cool. Like everything.” If you find yourself in danger of being taken seriously, then try to do something which undermines or sabotages that perception in some way. If your talent is of any genuine worth, it should be able to weather squalls of unpopularity and audience incomprehension. The only thing that might seriously endanger either your talent or your relationship with your talent is if you suddenly found yourself fashionable.”
― Alan Moore (of Watchmen and V for Vendetta fame)
“The trap of reputation, for example. In this scenario, having garnered a considerable reputation or level of acclaim, one becomes paralyzed by the dreadful thought of losing it all by doing something… undignified. Uncool. This is a trap. Reputation is a trap that will turn you into a lifeless marble bust of yourself before you’re even dead. And then of courses there is reputation’s immortal big brother, Posterity, worrying about which has driven better women and men than you into the asylum. All these things… reputation, posterity, cool… should be tested to destruction by a course of deliberate sabotage. As the often-illuminating Escape and New Musical Express cartoonist Shaky Kane once remarked, “Don’t be cool. Like everything.” If you find yourself in danger of being taken seriously, then try to do something which undermines or sabotages that perception in some way. If your talent is of any genuine worth, it should be able to weather squalls of unpopularity and audience incomprehension. The only thing that might seriously endanger either your talent or your relationship with your talent is if you suddenly found yourself fashionable.”
― Alan Moore (of Watchmen and V for Vendetta fame)
Well said, Alan, well said.
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