The CBC had a one-season show, "The most talented performer" or somesuch. We'll put you in front of a "coach!" was the promise. The performers did their song-and-dance for him.
"You haven't given me a reason to get out of bed, never mind drive across town."
He was such a jerk. But boy-howdy, did he ever get performances from them!
Similarly David Byrne. I don't doubt that he was an incredible asshole, especially in his last days as a member of the Talking Heads. But there's a reason why Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz are just footnotes to David's show, and it has nothing to do with what amazing musicians Weymouth and Frantz are. (Quick -- whose music did you last queue up?)
A member of the camps who didn't survive but whose posthumous novel was translated and published in the 90s caught the eye of somebody in my aunt's reading group. The book was a dud, and the person who recommended it couldn't understand why.
"I know why," said my aunt. "Back in the day this was considered cutting edge. But we haven't heard about her until now. Her life was more extraordinary than her fiction. Thomas Mann, Leo Tolstoy, George Elliot, Dante Alighieri -- people get out of bed and want to learn another language to get closer to these writers. We should be reading them." (BTW I recommend the translations of Oxford University Press.)
What I learned: give people a reason. (I'm jealous of people with actual editors for that very reason -- if you can't impress her you can't impress ANYONE.)
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