I have a knot in my stomach.  I’ve just been to conversationalreading.com, after Googling one of my favorite authors, Lorrie Moore. I read a conversation entitled, “Lorrie Moore’s Sad Decline.”  It might have been months ago that this conversational thread occurred, but it’s new to me, and I have to say, it scares me.  Not that people are critical of Moore’s work.  Not that they are snarky.  Not that they might be right.  What scares me is the possibility–maybe inevitability–of an artist’s decline, and the implication of where decline might start.

You see, the most cutting comment in this conversation (in my opinion) was not really aimed at Moore’s writing, but at her life:

I’ve written elsewhere that the early landing of a tenure-track position at the University of Wisconsin has led to a dearth of experience in a life that was uneventful to begin with.

This implies that to write well, or interestingly, one has to lead an interesting life.  Or at least, it might help.  This more than implies that a professorship cuts off life’s potential.  One might infer that any steady job, any career that interferes with writing time and lacks creative spark might sap away a young writer’s potential. Read more »