What Are You Even For?

We all know that it's out of the ordinary for writers to make much money. When you visit the government's Careers website, there is a special page to describe Writer, and there is a sign like one of those Fire Danger Today indicators that you see on hot country roads. Only in this sign it's an indicator for good jobs, as in, "Probability of a Good Job Today," and the arrow is pointing decidedly to Poor. I recently won a literary prize, a truly wonderful and absurd amount of money out of the clear blue, and I was struck how the news here in New Zealand described me as "pocketing" that money. That sly verb "pocket"-because writers glide around in huge coats lined with pockets in case the opportunity should arise to pinch something to which they feel entitled, like a scented candle or another coat lined with pockets. But, mostly, writers come across as these slightly otherworldly desperate fairy creatures, and if they have any monetary success at all, it's novel. It's amusing. They've bucked the system-the status quo of writers being poor.