Scan barcode
mungpetal's review
4.0
Liked it. relatable. art school dropout. the piracy part was weird. food SHOULD be free
collinmarks's review against another edition
5.0
This is an incredibly important book and should be required reading by every creative person and artist in the word today. The problems and anxieties faced on a daily basis for the past 20 some years are well articulated, and we all need to understand this problem in order to solve it
sab754's review against another edition
3.0
Yeah it was alright. My dad recced this to me--considering I'm "trying to be an Artist" now--and he cited this book as an influence for him to avoid Amazon etc. forever.
Alright, sure.
It was...bleak, to say the least. I'm curious about the author's choice for his interview subjects, and there seemed to be some issues with bias in a lot of the chapters. A lot of his analysis stank of white privilege.
I'm not a fan--personally that is--of an art critic--someone who contributes nothing but unwarranted opinion--deciding to throw his hat into the ring where no one's asked for it. Typical of a critic, I suppose.
A lot of this book talks about the growing divide between haves and have-nots, and talks about the death of the middle-class. In the wrap-up, his suggestion is to try and revive the middle-class.
For context, I'm hoping to be a published fantasy author. The one chapter that felt relevant naturally was on writing--and the focus seemed to be on essayists, poets, short story writers, and magazine authors. Not really what I'm trying to do. I've done my own research prior to reading this book and it didn't quite offer anything new for me here--other than "being an Author is Hard!"
So yeah, 3/5 stars. It was fine, but nothing that I'd say was life changing or revolutionary. I'm certainly glad I didn't buy this and borrowed it from my dad--which I've realised the author probably wouldn't be a fan of. Whoops! Sorry! Perhaps he should've tried to upload his stuff to Wattpad first.
Alright, sure.
It was...bleak, to say the least. I'm curious about the author's choice for his interview subjects, and there seemed to be some issues with bias in a lot of the chapters. A lot of his analysis stank of white privilege.
I'm not a fan--personally that is--of an art critic--someone who contributes nothing but unwarranted opinion--deciding to throw his hat into the ring where no one's asked for it. Typical of a critic, I suppose.
A lot of this book talks about the growing divide between haves and have-nots, and talks about the death of the middle-class. In the wrap-up, his suggestion is to try and revive the middle-class.
For context, I'm hoping to be a published fantasy author. The one chapter that felt relevant naturally was on writing--and the focus seemed to be on essayists, poets, short story writers, and magazine authors. Not really what I'm trying to do. I've done my own research prior to reading this book and it didn't quite offer anything new for me here--other than "being an Author is Hard!"
So yeah, 3/5 stars. It was fine, but nothing that I'd say was life changing or revolutionary. I'm certainly glad I didn't buy this and borrowed it from my dad--which I've realised the author probably wouldn't be a fan of. Whoops! Sorry! Perhaps he should've tried to upload his stuff to Wattpad first.
bootman's review against another edition
4.0
This book was extremely well written and researched to discuss the difficulties of being a creative in this day and age. I would highly recommend this book to young people who are passionate about art and are thinking of turning it into a career because this book has a lot of truth about how difficult that can be. Although the majority of this book discusses the problems with trying to survive as an artist during this time, I think it did a great job summarizing some solutions in the concluding chapter.
As a creative myself, I was torn about this book. A lot of people can benefit from this book, but personally, it felt like there was a lot of entitlement throughout the book. While the world does need artists, it almost felt like the artists interviewed and the author knew of a mythical time when artists thrive, but that's not the case. As long as being an artist has been a thing, they've struggled, and I personally think that's fair. It's a big ask to want to do something you love and make a significant amount doing it; especially when art is so subjective.
Aside from some of what I felt was entitlement, there were a lot of good conversations about copyright and how Big Tech is screwing over artists. I enjoyed the book and recommended it, but only for the aspect that it helps people realize that being an artist as your career isn't a logical decision. Not only is it not a logical decision, but it never has been, and it never will be due to the nature of art.
As a creative myself, I was torn about this book. A lot of people can benefit from this book, but personally, it felt like there was a lot of entitlement throughout the book. While the world does need artists, it almost felt like the artists interviewed and the author knew of a mythical time when artists thrive, but that's not the case. As long as being an artist has been a thing, they've struggled, and I personally think that's fair. It's a big ask to want to do something you love and make a significant amount doing it; especially when art is so subjective.
Aside from some of what I felt was entitlement, there were a lot of good conversations about copyright and how Big Tech is screwing over artists. I enjoyed the book and recommended it, but only for the aspect that it helps people realize that being an artist as your career isn't a logical decision. Not only is it not a logical decision, but it never has been, and it never will be due to the nature of art.
kristinshafel's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0