Kurt Vonnegut was always full of great advice - like the never-ending merits of going out to buy an envelope; or even the basic value of being kind, babies - but I'll never forget the part in the Bluebeard book where Rabo Karabekian draws a quick sketch, because of the things it says about what we do with our lives.
Like many characters in Vonnegut's books, and like the author himself, Rabo is a former POW who has reinvented himself for a new world. He becomes a thoroughly modern artist whose work consists of simple strips of colour on plain backgrounds.
There is some real delight in realising what those strips of colour actually are, and even more so when the material he uses means they start peeling away from his expensive canvases, rendering them worthless. And the final revelation of what he's doing in that barn is incandescently good.
But my favourite part in the book is when someone challenges Rabo on the simplicity of his modern art bullshit, and he dashes off a quick photo-realistic portrait, and when he's asked why he doesn't do that all the time, he spits out that he can't. Because it's so easy.
Once again, Yoda can fuck all the way off - doing the hard stuff, even if it ends in utter failure, is what life is all about. The attempt is the thing, not the end result, at least for the artist themselves. And if you keep just doing the easy shit, you'll never be challenged, and never get anywhere.
The lesson learned: It's no fun if it's easy.
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