PKD & Artist Types
Bone and I were discussing and recussing Phillip K. "Don't Call Me..." Dick and his rather tragic end. Artists and poets tend to live short miserable lives often marred by addictions and mental illness. I finished the Oscar Wilde story and his end was likewise inglorious. For my lack of true creativity, thank you God. (Although thanking God for that which does not personally ail me, when it ails my brother, seems weak. Thanking Him for the gift of life and his life he offers all of us - those are treasured and savored.)
How long you live is obviously no indication of goodness but it is interesting that non-fiction writers live longer than fiction writers and fiction writers live longer than poets. Writers of non-fiction, it seems, have to go outside themselves. They have to do research and the job uses less of the right side of the brain. Poets tend to go inside themselves and use primarily the right brain.
Walker Percy blamed the short lives of poets on a "re-entry" problem; artists leave the world and receive a creative high in their poetry and when they return to the seemingly mundane they have trouble readjusting. This was the problem Ignatius Reilly of "Confederate Dunces" had in prayer. After spending time with Jesus, your neighbor can seem a letdown if that prayer wasn't truly for God and was not infused with the desire for service.
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