mleiv.com

The Last Unicorn is one of my Favorite Books, but Beagle's other works haven't really struck a similar chord in me, until the final tale in this collection of short stories: "A Dance for Emilia." I was quite literally crying my way through the whole thing. Jake is a second-rate actor who spends his life working small theaters and bit parts; his friend Sam is a dancer who gave it up when he realized he would never be good enough, and became a theater critic instead (he refuses to review dance, noting that he's too bitter). There's no judgement (or at least none that I sensed) between these two choices. But the unspoken grief Sam feels over this choice haunts the entire narrative, up against Jake's lesser sadness of mediocrity.

I heard some reality show girl on one of the lesser cable channels chattering childish epiphanies during a channel-hop yesterday. She said that if you loved something enough, that was all it took to succeed. And I laughed, with all the bitterness of poor Sam. It's not, else the world would be full to the brim with artists and musicians and writers. Instead we fall to supporting roles, like critics, teachers, assistants, and gallery buyers, or disappear entirely into other, less-creative, endeavors. Reading that story, I side with Jake. Better to be a forgotten nobody in the world you love, than standing on the sidelines, forever thinking about what you gave up.