Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2004 01:09:58 -0800 (PST)
From: Mary Robinette Kowal <maryrk-AT-earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: PUPT: right on Q - or not


Since I've had several people try to cheer me up and tell me that I'm a good puppeteer, I thought I'd clarify my "What have I been doing with my life."

I shall attempt to add the vocal inflection and body language that would have come with that sentance if you, gentle readers, were present. "If it's so frickin' easy to train someone to do puppets then what the heck have I been doing with my life?  I mean, hello?!?!?  I'm a product of training.  I'm good at what I do and it didn't come easy.  Now someone has the nerve, the gumption, the demeaning arrogance to tell me that it's easy?!  Are you going to tell me that they're cute too?"  You see what I meant when I said that it made me cranky, but that really defensiveness was a large part of that.

Truly, if I did not believe that I was good at what I do I would have stopped doing it for others.  I played violin for seventeen years, but no longer play for any more than my own pleasure because I can tell that I will never be better than a very good mediocre.  I don't like to suck at things.  It gets in the way of cockiness.

This is all the more embarrassing because I find myself returning to familiar ground for arguement, when I really started this thread because of the epiphany that I'd had about taking other disciplines as seriously as I take my own.  It's just so much easier to stand on the soapbox of "puppets are better than..." because I know all of those arguments.  Most of the people I know are puppeteers.  When I talk to people outside the field I almost inevitably get one of a couple of comments: "Puppets?  That's so cute."  "Puppets?  Have you seen 'Being John Malcovich'?" "Puppets?  My uncle has a puppet."  "Puppets?  You can make a living at that?/What do you really do?"

So when I'm talking to my friends I'm preaching to the choir, and when I'm talking to someone new I'm trying to convert them.  It is rare to have a serious discussion about the art of puppetry with someone who is not intimately connected with it.  I was so excited because I'd had a moment of realizing that a lot of the problem was that I wasn't raising my own head from the control to look around.  

The fact that it's 4am are going to cause me to end with that.  It all makes sense now, but I've been on planes all day so there's no telling what I will think of this post tomorrow.  For those of you who know me, I just flew into NYC from Portland.  I'll be here for three months and would love to explore venues that offer adult beverages.




----

Mary Robinette Kowal
Other Hand Productions
http://www.otherhandproductions.com


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