Catching the Chimp

Why does this comic feel so familiar? It's because I'm a writer, and all writers and artists occasionally feel this way about something they've created.

I can think of several instances where I've worked and worked, andpoked and pawed at a piece of writing and finally got it to the point I felt like it was the most perfect, the best thing I'd ever produced. And than I had to show it to the philistines who also asked questions about the chimp.

Ah well. That's why they tell you as a writer to put what you've written away for a few days so the love and affection you feel for it has time to fade. I know even after a few days of hiding my writing in a drawer somewhere I can pick it up again and look at it with a more critical eye and see through the veneer and makeup all the superficial flaws and underlying faults in the superstructure.

But the philistines do their jobs well, and the writer who listens to them -- even to the inner philistines -- can be better for it. Even though it hurts.