🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <tfo3udg@zola.esd.sgi.com> rmr@annexia.esd.sgi.com (Robert M. Reimann) writes:
>
>> I dunno--my main problem with government support for literature is that
>> support is control.  If you have a benevolent government, the control may
>> not be exercised, but it exists none the less.
>
>The limit of that control is denying funding, which
>simply leaves the artist or writer to search elsewhere.

Not really; it often happens that government-funded competition in a
niche field is enough to drive the rest of the pack off the cliff.
There are already damn few enough publishers who make a profit off
lit; how many could go ten rounds in the ring with Uncle Sam?  When
your competitor gets his kibble in a bowl and you have to go
scavenging through the dumpsters, it's easy to see who'll get fat
and who'll end up an exclamation point on the lane divider of life.

c