Thanks for reading and responding to this! This is actually article I almost abandoned because I thought to myself, "what the fuck am I even trying to say here??" But you're right, it's hard to be an artist simply to create and be inspired, and not also want to be accepted, read, and celebrated, which plays into the problem of who an artist is. Is it no longer acceptable to devote yourself to art like a monk, worshipping beauty and trying to constantly improve yourself? Or should we just be unashamedly creating for the market, without a drop of sentiment? For my money, I think beauty is best: follow your bliss, and write things that express the beauty (and the terror) of being alive. Even if you're writing for a paycheck, you can still manage to do that.