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#1: Amanda Palmer, The Art of Asking
Jan. 3rd, 2020 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareilaMy first finished book of 2020 is one that I've been returning to off and on since the spring of 2015. I didn't really get into it until I found a copy of the audiobook, which is read by Amanda herself and includes the various songs that she mentions in the course of her narrative.
I suspect that the most obvious thing I can say about Amanda is that she provokes strong reactions from people, both positive and negative. She's a very interesting person, and not always likable. A lot of the book, especially towards the beginning, portrays her working through her anxieties and hangups around romantic commitment and financial dependence, which isn't pretty. But we gradually learn that what fuels her life is the connections she makes with others through her art. Before she became a musician, she worked as a living statue in Harvard Square, and she talks at length about the lessons she learned from that experience.
In addition to covering the highlights of her life story, she also spends a lot of time expanding on the ideas in her "Art of Asking" TED talk, which basically boil down to a defense of the value of relational economies (ranging from tip jars to crowdfunding) as opposed to more traditional transactional economies that the music industry understands. Amanda doesn't care about unit sales or radio play, she just wants to share her work with the handful of passionate fans who crave it, and give them the means to support her work, whether that's giving her money or helping with promotion or providing a place to crash when she's in town. She is entirely committed to her art, and although she doesn't always make good or healthy decisions, that commitment is admirable.
I suspect that the most obvious thing I can say about Amanda is that she provokes strong reactions from people, both positive and negative. She's a very interesting person, and not always likable. A lot of the book, especially towards the beginning, portrays her working through her anxieties and hangups around romantic commitment and financial dependence, which isn't pretty. But we gradually learn that what fuels her life is the connections she makes with others through her art. Before she became a musician, she worked as a living statue in Harvard Square, and she talks at length about the lessons she learned from that experience.
In addition to covering the highlights of her life story, she also spends a lot of time expanding on the ideas in her "Art of Asking" TED talk, which basically boil down to a defense of the value of relational economies (ranging from tip jars to crowdfunding) as opposed to more traditional transactional economies that the music industry understands. Amanda doesn't care about unit sales or radio play, she just wants to share her work with the handful of passionate fans who crave it, and give them the means to support her work, whether that's giving her money or helping with promotion or providing a place to crash when she's in town. She is entirely committed to her art, and although she doesn't always make good or healthy decisions, that commitment is admirable.
