An exchange at https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/question/view/2810 has inspired this Q:
Which of the following epitaphs would you prefer?
(S)he had 432 short stories published in international, widely read magazines; and won £372,600 in prize money in a wide selection of writing competitions... but didn't write a truly original sentence in 54 years of literary fame.
(S)he never made a single penny from 54 years of writing, and died an unknown pauper. But today - 24 years after her/his death - is considered a genius who paved the way for generations of original writing talent.
We at La Gr@not@ can't help you achieve the first. Wed be PROUD to help y towards the second.
It's rather strange that - with 8 replies - this Q has only been properly answered twice: by Eva and by Jimmy.
The question was not: "Would you like to have your epitaph now... or let it wait a few years?"
If that HAD been the question, I suppose that some wag might have replied: “I’d rather wait many, many, many years!” Or perhaps: “I’m not planning to die, EVER!”
To forestall any more such replies, allow me (with apologies to Jummy) to rephrase the Q.
Imagine that you have a time machine and are transported into the distant future, where you find one of the following (take your pick):
a) your entry in “The Encyclopaedia of Every Writer in History (in 459 volumes)”; or
b) your own tombstone.
Given that you will be at that time (and excepting your time-travelling aspect) already dead (could we possibly accept that premise?), which would you rather read:
1) Made Big Bucks writing mediocre fiction; or
2) Virtually unknown in lifetime, now considered a literary genius who inspired many others and is read with delight even today
?
I’d go for the 2nd. Call me elitist.
It's hard to say. I don't pretend to write literary fiction, or anything that will stand the test of time. I don't expect A level students to one day be poring over every line of my work looking for hidden meaning or debating whether my works sheds any light on the the theory of existentialism etc. Why do I write then? For pleasure mostly. Because I enjoy telling stories. Because, in a world where we have no say in who lives or dies, who gets to be saved and who is sacrificed, then I like to create a world where I get to decide. I hope to share some of my writing, and yes one day be published, and I'd like some people, at least, to enjoy my story. But I'm not defined by that. Ultimately, I write for me. It's almost like a therapy - and if no-one else cares to read it, or I never get published, as bitter a pill that would be to swallow - then so be it. There are far worse things in the world. However should I find any literary success - be that from a commercial novel, a literary masterpiece (highly improbable) or seeing a poem of mine in our local newspaper (as I have recently) then I would be happy with any, and all of it.
Clare
In the sister web-page, http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-people-who-became-famous-after-death.php, we find (in addition to some in the artists' list [and yes, Vincent makes #1 here, as well]): Alfred Wegener, Galileo Galilei, and Gregor Johann Mendel.