On the Occasion of a New Volume by Clive James

Anyway, I did review the last huge compendium of essays by Clive James a few years ago. Looking the piece over now, for the first time in more than three years, one passage stands out -- a quotation:

"[C]ontributing to a periodical designed to be thrown away," he writes, "the essayist composed his piece as if it were meant to be kept. There was always the chance that he might be the only one to keep it, but if he failed in his aim of bringing permanence to ephemerality, he could always congratulate himself on having respected his disrespectable work by devoting his best efforts to it."

Hear hear! I reread this after having just spent a solid 10 hours working on a piece that will be read in five minutes by people who will then forget it immediately.

"If he failed in his aim of bringing permanence to ephemerality, he could always congratulate himself on having respected his disrespectable work by devoting his best efforts to it." And then he could slip into a comforting and comfortable straight-jacket.