Creative Comsumption

Think of your favorite song, painting, or novel. It's pretty self-evident that the painting and the novel took weeks/months/years to complete. And I've heard musicians speak of taking months or years to get a song just right. Lots of effort involved all the way around.

Now think about how much time it takes to appreciate them. Even listening to it more than once, it requires only a few minutes to know if you like a song. For a painting, the reaction can be immediate, or at most a couple of minutes. Either you like it or you don't.

Not so with the book. A written work requires time to read and digest, to absorb the contents--characters, story, description, dialogue. The mechanism of instant reaction to art or music won't work here. You have to invest yourself--time, attention, maybe money--before you can make a fair evaluation, even if you stop reading a couple of chapters in and decide you don't like it.

Thank you, readers, for your willingness to give writers your attention.

Hmm...where did I leave my copy of Picasso's Guide to 'Louie Louie'?