This story is a sequel to The Cab Ride and a Night Train
When Feather thought about it, his date was right. If all he did with his poetry was seduce mares, then what was it really worth? Something about this bothered him to his very core, uprooting everything he knew about himself. Desperate, he heads out to the streets of Ponyville and stumbles upon a concert at the local theater.
An almost late entry into the May Pairing Contest. Although it is a sequel, reading A Cab Ride and a Night Train is not necessary.
Chapters (1)
I really liked this. Questioning the meaning of your work to the point of existential crisis? Good stuff, and this is done pretty well. I especially loved the critic. Who is he? Did he see something in the performance? Does anyone know? Does anyone care? That guy was an unresolved question, and i love it. Not everything gets resolved.
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Thank you, especially since this story got more or less overlooked (although there are several reasons for that such as posting late at night and saturation from the competition).
There is an article titled “Who cares if you listen?” by Christopher Babbit which inspired that line in the story. It’s argument was that the serialist (and rather unlistenable) music didn’t need an audience as it’s development was good in of itself. An audience would only hold his music back. In a way, it’s “art for art’s sake” taken to its logic extreme. This is why I found your comment so fascinating. You’ve probably never heard Christopher Babbit or his music, hence why he wrote the article. Everyone knows that making art for popularity can be soul sucking but the same is true for art completely made for itself. It is in finding a balance between the two where an artist can really thrive.
So when I think about your comment and its questions, the answer is that you won’t know. Not just because I wrote it that way, but because that’s what happens when artists don’t consider anyone outside of themselves. They become unknown.
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And this is why I made an "unexpectedly deep" bookshelf just for a place to put this.
Because this is essentially a philosophy conversation and I adore engaging deeply with stories, I'd like to throw in a few other thoughts.
I really like how this feels like a dialogue rather than a lecture. It's about the nature and validity of art, but it doesn't seem to push a single answer. Rather, it asks questions, and we get to have the characters' thoughts as a springboard. The whole thing with the critic (which I now have context on) can be taken in conjunction with what Feather Bangs asks later about if his art is meaningless. A pretty good thing to consider, really. What does art need to have to be "meaningful"?
Also, quick shout-out to Octavia for wanting easily-applied advice. Honestly same.
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Honestly, when people do that, I feel honored. Like, you have to go out of your way to do that. Then again, this is the goal with a lot of my stories: take tropes or crazy ideas and give them much more substance than you’d expect. It doesn’t always work out as expected and I’m definitely not above criticism, but I can’t help it. There’s something about not just playing with an idea, but going all-in with it that I just have to do it.
Thanks for the comments. I love it when my stuff provokes conversation rather than just getting a ton of comments saying “good job.” It shows me that my stories actually mean something to my readers (the irony of this is not lost on me either). It’s something I strive for with almost every one of my stories.
I could go on and on about the decisions I made and exactly how this dialogue was derived, but it’s late and I think it’s better to let it speak for itself rather than explicitly saying what it means.