I definitely think there is a LOT more pressure now for all things creative to “fit” within a set of parameters, and if it doesn’t fit in the current social narrative, it doesn’t “count.”

I saw a lot of that when I did a short stint of work as a short story writer. Stories had to fit within a fairly narrow set of literary conventions, anything that smelled remotely “genre fic” (i.e. sci fi, fantasy, stuff that people were actually reading) didn’t get published because it wasn’t considered intellectual enough.

In the music world, it’s similar, in the art world it’s even more so....

I personally want to know where the joy went? What happened to creativity as a form of play? When did it morph into this weird posturing?