a marriage with the wherewithal

Today was one of those every-few-weeks days when one article made an entire year's subscription to (and paper used for) the New Yorker worthwhile. Malcolm Gladwell strikes again, about artistic genius and how some people get there slowly over the long haul. And the wherewithal it takes in the mean time.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/20/081020fa_fact_gladwell

In a way it's about patience, and time, and diligence--all the things that the rest of us wish we had in spades. But the article is also about patronage, which is something you don't hear about too often these days. The novelist at the center of the piece has been supported--emotionally, logistically, and financially--by his wife for the past twenty years, eighteen of which generated little more than a few stories in distinguished publications. Her unflagging devotion and patience and willingness to organize her life and family around her belief in her husband is almost unrecognizable.

Would any of this have been possible if she didn't make an obscenely good salary as a corporate lawyer? Of course not. (We've heard many times about the same hard-working genius who brings his family down with him financially for the sake of his art.) But she is, and he worked his ass off and made good use of her generosity. They also have several kids, whom he stayed home to raise while keeping to a strict writing schedule. For a couple making more than the magical $250,000 a year (above which they're flirting with a tax increase, if all goes well on 11-4), it's inspiring to hear about ways to use personal resources other than to look good or feel good or get away or feel self-righteous. As a couple, they strike me as the real deal. She sounds truly gratified by her belief in him. And has been, in good times and bad.

I wonder how many stories we could find about men who have supported women in similar pursuits, and how successful the women have been in comparison. As Gladwell notes, as if you can even quantify success in artistic pursuits like this. All I know is that as marriages go, this one inspires me in a truly cynical time.

Gladwell is so good at unearthing someone else's research and reframing it in a way that contributes to his overall gestalt. He didn't come up with this premise about genius; he's basically reviewing a U. Chicago economist's work, ruminating on someone else's potent examples, and journalizing it with a really powerful first-person testimonial. Not to detract--no one else does what he does as well. I'm just endlessly amazed by the good writer--good mind--who can take what is right there for all of us, shake off the distractions and focus our attention. There's sublime stuff underneath. And we can all use a little of the sublime.

The only other thing I've heard by Gladwell of late was a story he told on This American Life about his first job as a journalist at the Washington Post. He was funny but also really out there with his supreme arrogance and fearlessness as an uppity young hack, consumed by his own wit and above-the-fray cleverness that, fortunately for him, still sets him apart today. It's well worth a listen, though.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=348