Competing

Baffling to me is the realization that most underground writers won't even try to compete with the mainstream. At every prospect of making noise the stance has been to back away, back away, back away.. The attitude is typified by Outsider Writers, whose writers glory in their marginality. For the last two years the ULA has also followed this strange philosophy.

How anyone can be satisfied with this situation is beyond my understanding. Say what you will about me, but I was always in the arena COMPETING-- doing whatever it took to stand out, with the belief that by competing we could become hugely successful, and not incidentally make literary history. More than this I believed in the necessity and urgency of what we were doing. I saw openings on the game board which still wait to be exploited.

Without huge belief and ambition artists of any kind are noplace.