2.06 pm 10/10/17
“Kaur is probably right; I’m pretty sure the reason her first book sells so well is not based on the inherent accessibility of her poetry, but because of its good placement within bookstores, aesthetically simple cover, and the massive Instagram hype around Kaur herself.” – Lindsey Adler
Read an article on Rupi Kaur today, and thought about why poets or artists do the work they do. Man, don’t you want to get paid for the work you do? Deep down, don’t you want somebody to resonate with the words that you say? Funny enough; I think she gets a lot of hate not just for being a “bad” poet, but being a well-selling “bad” poet.
Part of me struggles with this thought: wouldn’t one rather have a million book sales, than none? Is there a roadmap to ‘selling out poetry, and if so, how does one sell out? How does one become rich off their writing? Is it a sin to want to become rich off your writing? Doing art for the money? What about banking for the money? Is that more or less of a sin?
Maybe I’m just not personally dedicated enough to writing poetry, the art form in itself to allow me to call myself a poet. I could go out and make an instagram account writing”dumbed-down” poetry now and I probably wouldn’t be a thousandth as successful as her. Hang on… I’ll be right back.