Work, work, work
Writing is hard work (in an emotional and metaphysical sense). Even as I type that line, though, I feel ashamed. I come from a working-class background, and to this day, my mother still works long hours using her body as a tool.
Me? I sit on my ass and write or stand in front of a class full of college students and teach. Still hard work, yes, but not the kind of hard work my 61-year-old mother endures. She is a federal meat inspector, and she stands on her feet in cold coolers all day long. I have no room to complain, really.
For me, the hardest part about writing and particularly about writing about my life is the sense that this isn’t important work. If I ached at the end of the day, maybe then it would be important. If I produced something someone could eat or wear, maybe then it would be important. But I create ideas and put them on paper, and right now, the only physical manifestation of my writing can be found in the local newspaper where my column about the writing life and books appears twice monthly. I do not have a printed novel or memoir yet, and so I struggle with my sense that the work I’m doing isn’t worth much. (I really need to work on that sense of entitlement some of my peers seem to have. Where does that come from? I imagine it’s a class-based thing…)
So, my conceit of hard work aside, please bear with me, dear readers, as I labor over the next installment of Pissed. In the meantime, enjoy this essay by an acquaintance of mine:
Workshop Is Not For You (Glimmer Train)
Jeremy is an associate editor for Fiction Writers Review, an online journal about fiction and art of writing. It’s worth a look.
Speaking of work and issues of class, I will be presenting a paper about gender, language and working class students at this summer’s Working Class Studies Association Conference, June 3-6. In particular, I’m interested in how female instructors are perceived in the classroom and how language–nurturing, harsh, profane and academic–plays into those perceptions. (Hat tip: Graffiti in Ivory Towers)