An artist, a man, a failure, MUST PROCEED. Proceed: not succeed. With success, as any world or unworld comprehends it, he has essentially nothing to do. If it should come, well and good: but what makes him climb to the top of the tent emphatically isn’t ‘a billion empty faces’. Even success in his own terms cannot concern him otherwise than as a stimulus to further, and a challenge to more unimagineable, self-discovering – ‘The chairs will all fall by themselves down from the wire’; and who catches or who doesn’t catch them is none of his immortal business. One thing, however, does always concern this individual: fidelity to himself.
- e. e. cummings
Lots of people object to this statement. For one thing, they don't like the use of "man/he/his", which is absolutely not allowed now - for God's sake, why doesn't he say "a man OR a woman", "he OR she", etc., especially with all the pronoun confusion affecting language right now? But the idea that failure is part of the game echoes my all-time-favorite quote from Teddy Roosevelt, which dares to call itself "The MAN in the arena". (Can't have that!)
But even more subersive is the idea that success has nothing to do with you. If it comes, fine, but if you strive for it, you will be chasing a phantom. Our entire culture revolves around success or failure, defined in terms of dollars and one's contribution to the overall economy, the GNP. Very seldom is artistic merit even considered. Popularity and the ensuing financial gain is the whole story.
The last few lines are the most subversive, and totally nonsensical to most people: the claim that how an artist's work is received is "none of his immortal business" (how I love that phrase!), and that the sole necessity of art is fidelity to himself (herself, itself, elephant self, Old Testament prophet self, Joan of Arc self, etc. etc. etc.)
This quote, along with a few others, has informed my life, and I have come back to them again and again because they run counter to cultural pressures and expectations. So many artists are crushed by this. Even artists who make a lot of money, and are therefore deemed "successful" go through the tortures of the damned, because it is NEVER ENOUGH. Jump high, higher, higher - no, sorry, you failed to grab the brass ring. Maybe next time.
