Thread replies: 20
Thread images: 3
Thread images: 3
File: wallacestevens.jpg (619KB, 2376x2679px) Image search:
[Google]
619KB, 2376x2679px
>The son of a wealthy lawyer, at 25 he marries a girl, after a long courtship, against his parents wishes because she was "lower-class."
>No one from his family attended the wedding, so, "Stevens never again visited or spoke to his parents during his father’s lifetime."
>Goes to work for a law firm at 29, becomes a Vice President.
>His first poem is published in a magazine at 36.
>Eventually goes to work for an insurance company at 37.
>Doesn't publish his first collection of 85 poems until 44. It doesn't get a great reception.
>After the birth of his daughter, he takes a 9 year break from writing.
>Becomes Vice President at the insurance company at 55.
>Publishes his second poetry collection at 55.
>Publishes a third collection at 57.
>Publishes a fourth collection at 58.
>Publishes a fifth and sixth collection at 63.
>A seventh poetry collection and a collection of essays is published at 67.
>Given the Bollingen Prize at 70.
>An eighth collection at 71.
>Given the National Book Award for Poetry and Frost Medal at 72.
>His collected poems are published at 75.
>Given a second National Book Award for Poetry and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry at 75.
>Offered a faculty position at Harvard but turns it down because he's still Vice President of the insurance company. He's still working.
>Dies at 75.
>I forgot to mention, he remained faithful and married to his wife, even after her mental state and, by consequence, the relationship deteriorated.
>Remained staunchly politically conservative throughout his life.
Is this not the dream? How is this not the dream?
>>
>>8657154
>>Remained staunchly politically conservative throughout his life.
Why do you consider this good? The world is not perfect; there are several things one needs to correct in the world. To remain conservative shows either that you are a) afraid of changes or b) that you believe that some changes are important, but you personally don’t know how they should be made.
I admit that there are many propositions of change that doesn’t seem very appropriate or safe in the long-term. There are some good quotes about it:
>Every society honors its live conformists, and its dead troublemakers. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
>The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain. ~Colin Wilson
>New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. ~John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
>>
>>8657172
I'm not really interested in getting into a political discussion and was merely posting facts from Wallace Stevens' life that I admired. It simply stood out to me considering his success in an industry/artform/scene that tends towards progressivism, so I included it in the post.
>>
>>8657154
>marrying a pleb
>>
Sorry for that:
>>8657183
I think that the most impressive thing in Wallace Stevens life is the fact that he never gave up. Poetry is a very lonely art-form: you don’t have a lot of readers and the appeal of this form of writing to the general public is generally quite limited. Yet Stevens kept reading and writing and studying and learning until his middle age, when he started to publish. Many writers would not have the same endurance, the same willingness to keep moving forward without some great validation from the outside world.
>>
>>8657172
People tend to get more conservative as they get older. We can't all be edgelords forever. Some people want to have families.
>>
>>8657246
I think that's the big reason I admire him. He largely wrote for himself. It made him truly happy. He would have had a nice, comfy life as a successful businessman, and yet he managed to find the rarest of success in art on top of it. He even lived the rest of his life in the house he bought before he found his literary success.
I guess I find it interesting as an underrated writer's story. You largely hear of the writers who lived the wild and crazy or depressing lives. I admit, it probably makes for an easier story for editors of magazines. It's just interesting to read about someone who was able to keep creating great work and manage a comfortable life.
>>
>>8657154
pretty based
too bad he wrote incomprehensible shit about dumb stuff like dairy queen, also his fanbase is pretty autistic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLBXe3z9zx8
>>
File: not-billmurray.jpg (27KB, 296x445px) Image search:
[Google]
27KB, 296x445px
>>8657336
>his fanbase is pretty autistic
>posts Harold Bloom
That's bait.
>>
>>8657154
You missed
>got beaten up by Hemmmingway
Love his poetry though, even though it's way 2deep4me
>>
>>8657154
I've never read any Stevens, but you've intrigued me, OP. Which book of his do you recommend?
>>
>>8657385
>>got beaten up by Hemmmingway
Who didn't?
>>
>>8657172
because there's also things that would cause harm if they were changed
>>
>>8657385
He did say Stevens was a damn fine poet in a letter to someone after the fight.
It read like something you'd find on here.
>He's an outright cunt cuckold, but a damn fine poet.
>>
>>8657154
He makes me not feel like a failure for my one publication and several performances at the old age of 28. Not everyone has to be a wunderkind
>>
>>8657422
I mean, the full collection is only like $15 brand new.
Probably the easiest way in is "The Man With the Blue Guitar."
>>
>>8657449
>tfw you're just trying to keep to keep to yourself at a dive bar and you hear DEAL WITH HIM HEMINGWAY
>>
>>8657172
Maybe he just thought the progressive solutions being were ineffective or worse than before hmmmm?
>>
File: 46554454.jpg (14KB, 236x318px) Image search:
[Google]
14KB, 236x318px
>>8657734
fucking kek
>>
>>8657172
>conservative = conformist
Thread posts: 20
Thread images: 3
Thread images: 3