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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 19 KB, 224x344, richard_yates.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5875822 No.5875822 [Reply] [Original]

Who are some well-known writers who were extremely poor?

Pic related: Richard Yates

>> No.5875836

Diogenes

>> No.5875848

Me in a few years.

>> No.5875852

>>5875836
Did he actually write anything?

>> No.5875884
File: 150 KB, 1536x1019, Chatterton.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5875884

>> No.5875890
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5875890

>> No.5875914

>>5875822
Me, except for the "well-known" and "writer" parts

>> No.5875917

>>5875852
No, he actually hated writing. He preferred to teach by example, like all sages do.

>> No.5875918

I don't think he counts as 'specifically poor' but Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell is basically about being a broke literary-type, like you or I

>> No.5875925

>>5875852
Not a thing

>> No.5875930

Faulkner and PKD were both poor at times

>> No.5875937

>>5875918
>like you or I

I'm not broke, I actually have a job where I could be making a lot if I stick with it. But if I get my book published I might quit to focus on writing as I work long ass hours right now and am dead when I get home. I'm both lucky and unlucky to be a liberal arts graduate with a great job. I don't believe in the romantic idea of being poor having experienced it myself, and I realize that if I do quit and things go badly I will experience a great deal of suffering and self-loathing. I'm not looking to go full NEET, but I just need time and mental energy to research and write things to a high standard.

>> No.5875938
File: 62 KB, 750x1000, img-tao-lin_085529844583.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5875938

>>5875822
That's not Richard Yates

>> No.5875941

>>5875937
Also any advice on this?

I am aware I am prone to delusional thoughts and so on, and I by no means overestimate my talent, but I am ambitious and self-disciplined enough to want to produce the best writing I'm capable of, anything else is secondary at this point

>> No.5875944

Henry Miller

>> No.5875953

>>5875937
full NEET is a danger; undergrad winter break is now upon me and as always it is certainly the most superfluous month of the year

>> No.5875957

>>5875941
You're asking about how to go about finding the time to write?

Read daily rituals for ideas. Many authors wrote their best works while working full time, especially their early works. When they did go full time writing they often keep a harsh schedule, like a 9-5 job at the desk.

>> No.5876010

>>5875957
Yeah I guess it's a matter of what that job entails, or of my learning to deal with it. I'm moved closer to where I work now so the commute doesn't cut off two hours of my day, but still 9 hours of constant attention and alertness saps my ability to then focus on writing. I sound like I'm whining and that I tihink I have it worse than I do, I know.

>> No.5876016

>>5876010
Consider using a voice recorder for ideas, especially on your way to work in the morning. (more fresh)
Do you have kids or other evening obligations?
If you don't:
Consider going to bed right after work(eat in the car on the way home). Then get up earlier to write before you got to work.

>> No.5876021

>>5876016
Thanks man. Is the recorder thing a reference to T.S. Eliot?

Also no kids. I have been getting home, eating and then sleeping for an hour before working. Unfortunately my moving closer to work has resulted in my living in the heart of the city with constant traffic. I've tried earplugs but that makes my irritability worse. Hope I don't sound like a bitch I just need quiet to work with my full attention. But yeah, thanks. Still, if my book does get published I at least won't feel overly guilty for quitting. I wish I had Kafka's routine of working from 8 until 1pm and then having the rest of the day to himself. Seems pretty cosy.

>> No.5876024

>>5876021
Where do you live? (it's for an idea about the noise)
I'm not gonna tell you that you should easily ignore noise, some people can't.

I can't remember who it was, but it was some prolific author. The idea has struck me before I read daily rituals though.

>> No.5876033

>>5876024
Central London.

I currently have my room set up so that my desk is at the far side away from the window, while I sit facing the window with a stack of books up to my scalp blocking it from view. I play Basinski's Disintegration Loops every night. I tried sleeping with earplugs in but they made my ears hurt. Kant was one author extremely sensitive to sound. He moved out of a house once because the hose next door had a rooster. If he were in my position he would have no doubt pulled an Eliot by now.

>> No.5876047

>>5876033
Hmm where do you work?
Do you have night access?

>> No.5876049

>>5876033

>>5876047
Big building?

>> No.5876054

>>5876047
Ha I've considered that but no. There's an alarm and as there is no guard and computer systems are involved I wouldn't be allowed to go to my office at night, which is a shame because it's real comfy. My first few months in my flat I really did go insane, I even considered buying a ton of egg cartons to line the walls of my room. I still think motorcyclists should be banned from driving through the centre of the city after 9pm, that is if their vehicle produces a sound above a certain decibel.

>> No.5876122

>>5876054
Have you considered student libraries with 24hour access?

>> No.5876136

>>5876054
>>5876122
and inb4 "I'm not a student"
Either enroll in some simple subject, bare minimum to get access. Rent/borrow a card from someone you know or find someone you don't know. Lastly ask the ones in administration if it would be possible to get access anyway, most people are agreeable if you lay your case properly. Either that or try many administrators.

Another thought was hotels with 24h staff, going there before work in the morning. Sitting in the dining area/somewhere far away from the street.

>> No.5876140

Me.

>> No.5876141

>>5876122
Yep there's one nearby but you have to pay a large fee to use it as a civilian. I've tried my local library but it's been "remodelled" to appeal to children etc and so people talk there and the reading area has been reduced to six tables where people go to use the computers. It's better than my flat but still I hate going there since there's no privacy or silence.

>> No.5876143
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5876143

>>5875852
>>5875917
>>5875925
He did in fact write - several plays, dialogues and a book describing his vision of an anarchist utopia called the Republic. All lost unfortunately

>> No.5876145

>>5876136
Thanks buddy, I appreciate your suggestions and I guess I'll have to try looking again for somewhere I can go for some quiet. I realize I can't expect the world but still silence doesn't seem a lot to ask for.

>> No.5876158

>>5876141
How large is this fee
Sounds like you've got it already

>> No.5876163

>>5876145
Churches might be perfect by the way.
I'm not religious, but there's silence and an inkling to help another person out

>> No.5876191

>>5876141
I was about to suggest the Reading Room at the British Museum but I looked it up and it looks like its closed since 1997 and St Pancras is now where to go. Sigh. No more lineal ties to Marx, Lenin, Rimbaud and Wilde.

>> No.5876305

>>5876163
yeah they are nice and you will be treated with respect inside them, (clergy will not come up to you to confirm your belief in his own faith). they might ask you how you're doing or, if you become a regular, they might ask why they don't see you at mass. so long as you don't ever bring up your faith or lack thereof to the clergy, you will be a ok.

>> No.5876337

>>5875822
Fun Fact: Larry David dated his daughter, and he was the inspiration for Elaine's father in the episode about Jerry's fancy suede jacket with the pink and white lining.

>> No.5876431

>>5876337
I can totally see that especially based on OP's pic.

Also I first read this post as "Larry David dated his daughter"

>> No.5876439

>>5876163
Do churches often stay open late?

>> No.5877300

Isidore-Lucien Ducasse (Songs of Maldoror)
Bukowski (in the first half of his career)

>> No.5877322

>You discover the extreme precariousness of your six francs a day. Mean disasters happen and rob you of food. You have spent your last eighty centimes on half a liter of milk, and are boiling it over the spirit lamp. While it boils, a bug runs down your forearm; you give the bug a flick with your nail, and it falls, plop! Straight into the milk. There is nothing for it but to throw the milk away and go foodless. You go to the baker’s to buy a pound of bread, and you wait while the girl cuts a pound for another customer. She is clumsy, and cuts more than a pound. ‘Pardon, monsieur,’ she says, ‘I suppose you don’t mind paying two sous extra?’ Bread is a franc a pound, and you have exactly a franc. When you think that you too might be asked to pay two sous extra, and would have to confess that you could not, you bolt in panic. It is hours before you dare venture into a baker’s shop again. You go to the greengrocer’s to spend a franc on a kilogram of potatoes. But one of the pieces that make up the franc is a Belgian piece, and the shop man refuses it. You slink out of the shop, and can never go there again. You have strayed into a respectable quarter, and you see a prosperous friend coming. To avoid him, you dodge into the nearest café. Once in the café, you must buy something, so you spend your last fifty centimes on a glass of black coffee with a dead fly in it. One could multiply these disasters by the hundred. They are part of the process of being hard up.
Orwell knew a bit a bout this shit

>> No.5877389

JK Rowling was poor before she wrote Harry Potter

>> No.5877564
File: 254 KB, 491x479, yates.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5877564

>mfw Larry David dated Richard Yates's daughter
>mfw Lawrence Tierney's character on Seinfeld was based on Richard Yates

>> No.5879943

>>5876140
But you are not a writer.

>> No.5879971

>>5876033

i've gotten some good work done listening to basinski. have you ever heard the orchestra at the bottom of the ocean? also good working music.

>> No.5879980

>>5875937

do not even think about romanticizing poverty. it is not fun and it is not cool.

as someone who grew up in poverty, went to elite schools, and still somehow ended up as an adult in poverty anyway, i can tell yo u 100% that there is NOTHING romantic about it. it destroys you.

>> No.5879996

>>5879980
>do not even think about romanticizing poverty. it is not fun and it is not cool.

I don't think people romanticize poverty in itself, but rather the other things that are associated with it -- eg integrity, freedom, taking risks, etc etc

Henry Miller isn't cool because he moved to Paris and became poor, he's cool because he moved there to focus on writing in the face of poverty.

>> No.5880004

>ITT: poorfaggot OP tries to legitimate his poorfaggot status by pointing out people who wrote 1000x times better than himself were poor for a time also

JK Rowling was poor, OP

>> No.5880009

>>5879996

poverty doesn't automatically grant you integrity, believe me. all it does is give you suffering.

henry miller is cool because he's cool. that was just his personality. his poverty was irrelevant. he was a working class brooklyn kid.

>> No.5880012

Read Knut Hamsuns "Hunger" ("Sult") http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8387.. Also Dostovjeskijj was a pretty poor bugger.

>> No.5880016

>>5875941
>And so on
ZIDF pls go

>> No.5880020

people think it's brave to forge on with your passions when you're poor. but really, what else are you supposed to do? you keep trying to live your life and doing the things you want to do in whatever capacity you can. stop treating poverty like it's some sort of badge or rite of passage. it's disrespectful to people who are actually suffering through impoverishment.

>> No.5880029

>>5880009
...right. Did you read my post? I never said poverty grants those traits, only that they've come to be associated with it.

And yes, but there's a certain aura around his Paris era, and I'm explaining it's not simply because of his poverty.

>> No.5880067

>>5880029

what exactly is your point, then.

>> No.5880070

>>5880012
Also George Orwell "Down and out In Paris and London" and some of hos earlier novels.

>> No.5880097

all of them

stem master race, artfags

>> No.5880107

>>5880067
That people aren't necessarily romanticizing poverty but the things associated with it -- but that's not to say any of those things require or come directly as a result of poverty. We don't disagree in any way other than I don't think anyone really romanticizes poverty itself.

>> No.5880122

>>5880107

but you just admitted that those associations themselves aren't even valid. you admit that there is not explicit association between any of those qualities and living in poverty.

and you will notice that this isn't a "who are some well-known writers who exhibit integrity and freedom?"

so again, what is your point.

>> No.5880125

>>5880107

don't worry i can answer that for him

>i'm not saying i romanticize poverty, but i romanticize poverty.

>> No.5880128

>>5880125

meant for

>>5880122

>> No.5880132

>>5880107

But those associations only come from a romanticization of being poor. I agree with the other anon in that there is no direct relationship. The only reason anyone THINKS they have anything to do with one another is because poverty is sometimes romanticized in such a way.

>> No.5880150

>>5880122
...

Right, there is no 'real' link between poverty and those qualities, but I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about people viewing it as such.

>and you will notice that this isn't a "who are some well-known writers who exhibit integrity and freedom?"

Because this thread is only asking about poor writers, I'm responding to your post directly, man.

You might be retarded, get yourself tested.

>> No.5880181

>>5880125
I'm talking about other people, anon, what the fuck?

>>5880132
I disagree. I mean, I'd agree if the conversation was about rich people who romanticize being poor because there's some inherent truth in poverty, those people exist, but in the context of artists being poor isn't the end, it's everything else. It's not being poor, it's about not having to work, etc. Henry Miller didn't turn away charity, he got it wherever he could.

>> No.5880212

>>5880181

maybe i'm reading too much between the lines but the OP appears to be someone of some means who believes he needs to experience poverty in order to acquire those characteristics discussed. it is entirely a conversation about romanticization.

>> No.5880215

>>5880212

actually i take that back. i re-read through some of the posts and it seems like OP was just legit worried about how being poor might mean he will not be successful.

>> No.5880238

>>5877322
Man, I really got to know that my first couple months in Paris. He has one thing wrong though: you pick the goddamn bug out of the milk.

>> No.5880896
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>> No.5880901

>>5875852
He wrote tons of stuff and he was extremely famous for it.

Only some aphorisms have survived, though.

>> No.5880906

>>5879980
>as someone who grew up in poverty, went to elite schools, and still somehow ended up as an adult in poverty anyway

iktf :(

>> No.5880920

>>5877389
And now she's a billionaire (or at least ex billionaire).