FYI or die

It is impossible for me to read something about Jonathon Franzen without thinking about this article.  Written by his ex-girlfriend, writer Kathryn Chetkovich, Envy, is an uncomfortably honest account of how it feels to be a writer dating another writer who becomes exceedingly successful while you are still struggling to get short stories published in local journals (tip: not all that flash.)  Published in Meanjin, the full essay now remains under their oh-so-tight paid content section.  I will quote from their sparse but free blog commentary:

On reading early drafts of the novel she remembers feeling the proverbial ‘stabs of dread familiar to all writers’, because ‘here were sentences, paragraphs, whole pages I not only admired but wished I had written’. After publication, things only became worse: ‘When the man was merely gifted but not particularly rewarded, I was comfortable; we were in it together, comrades in a world that didn’t care what we had to tell it. But now, what did his success prove if not that when the gift is prodigious enough, the world does need us, it will pay?’

The essay is one of my favourite things ever written about creativity human nature.  It was republished in The Best American Essays of 2004 and even Franzen heaped praise on it. 

On that note, I really can’t wait for the new Franzen.  This book nerd anticipation reminds me of how I used to feel as a ten-year-old waiting for John Marsden to release the next installment of the “Tomorrow When the War Began” series in the summer.  Excitement abounds.