I think it's the motivation that is what's most important to the definitions I've described, whether there's an audience or not. The internet just creates an ideal environment for the torytellers, because they can find an audience so easily.
The difference is one of focus: the Artist focuses on the art, while the Storyteller focuses on the effect of the art.
You of course are your own first audience.
To further clarify, James Joyce I would hazard a guess is the classic Artist. He refined the art of his writing and didn't give a damn about its accessibility. That doesn't mean that Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is inaccessible, not by any means. But his focus was generally the Art itself. I base this on the mere existance of Finnegan's Wake and the fact that Joyce was even irritated when friends guessed the name of his work-in-progress (Finnegan's Wake) before it was published.
J. R. R. Tolkien I would consider a classic Storyteller, based on his own statements that he simply set out to write a "ripping good yarn" and a "home" for his invented languages. Yet he's a wonderful artist with exquisite descriptive ability who created a modern mythology in the mold of Beowulf. His focus was on the "yarn," the story itself. He too did not have an audience for the sixteen years he spent writing it -- and he never expected much of a readership.
The Artists are often falsely accused of being primadonas by those who don't understand their high aims. Perfection. Meanwhile Storytellers are often falsely accused of being cheap hacks (often by themselves as well, ahem) by those who don't understand their joy in a well-told, satisfying tale. The aims are different, the focus is different, but they are equally valid.
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branchandroot
Re: Very interesting thread...
Date: 2004-07-12 02:36 am (UTC)The difference is one of focus: the Artist focuses on the art, while the Storyteller focuses on the effect of the art.
You of course are your own first audience.
To further clarify, James Joyce I would hazard a guess is the classic Artist. He refined the art of his writing and didn't give a damn about its accessibility. That doesn't mean that Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is inaccessible, not by any means. But his focus was generally the Art itself. I base this on the mere existance of Finnegan's Wake and the fact that Joyce was even irritated when friends guessed the name of his work-in-progress (Finnegan's Wake) before it was published.
J. R. R. Tolkien I would consider a classic Storyteller, based on his own statements that he simply set out to write a "ripping good yarn" and a "home" for his invented languages. Yet he's a wonderful artist with exquisite descriptive ability who created a modern mythology in the mold of Beowulf. His focus was on the "yarn," the story itself. He too did not have an audience for the sixteen years he spent writing it -- and he never expected much of a readership.
The Artists are often falsely accused of being primadonas by those who don't understand their high aims. Perfection. Meanwhile Storytellers are often falsely accused of being cheap hacks (often by themselves as well, ahem) by those who don't understand their joy in a well-told, satisfying tale. The aims are different, the focus is different, but they are equally valid.
Icarus