Expectations

When T. S. Eliot published The Wasteland in 1922, reviewers had a lot to say about his landmark modernist poem, and much of it wasn’t good. Some suggested he was mad, others that it simply wasn’t a poem at all. It’s funny to read now, as the poem has since become firmly cemented in the Western Cannon, and it’s perhaps an easy excuse to skewer reviewers in general for their lack of vision – but in their defense, The Wasteland was quite different than what had come before it.

In fact, I thought of those reviewers when my wife decided it was time to do a little redecorating in our living room. Our rug was old and worn, and the throw pillows on our couch had lost their form. Jen clearly had a vision for the room I did not. I just wanted something that wasn’t frayed and tired-looking, and in my mind, we would simply replace what we had more or less exactly. This was not her plan. Instead of our black and red Persian rug, she suggested a teal piece with illustrated insects. Instead of the red and gray pillows, she brought in orange and pale green.

My response to both the rug and pillows when they arrived was the same: this is wrong. Rugs, I thought, are supposed to be darker and Persian, and pillows are supposed to be red and gray. My mind, I noticed, had one idea of what the room should look like. Which is why, when she asked me if I liked the new pieces, I said, “I do!” Was I telling the truth? Not really. But I also didn’t trust my first response. It seemed a little OCD. I knew my experience of them would change.

And it has. Now I love them. Or I think I do. I’ve certainly gotten very used to them. It’s tricky when artists change things without consulting us. Stories or poems or songs of a certain form have pleased us, and it’s easy to start feeling like anything other than those forms, anything different, is bad. Many bad reviews are nothing more than someone saying, “Hey! That’s not what I expected.” They’re telling the truth. Eventually, they’ll catch up to the artist who had to live with a story long enough to tell it.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com