HOW TO BE MISERABLE
In my younger days dodging the draft, I somehow wound up in the Marine Corps. There’s a myth that Marine training turns baby-faced recruits into bloodthirsty killers. Trust me, the Marine Corps is not that efficient. What it does teach, however, is a lot more useful.
The Marine Corps teaches you how to be miserable.
This is invaluable for an artist.
Marines love to be miserable. Marines derive a perverse satisfaction from having colder chow, crappier equipment, and higher casualty rates than any outfit of dogfaces, swab jockeys or flyboys, all of whom they despise. Why? Because these candy-asses don’t know how to be miserable.
The artist committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation.
The artist must be like that Marine. He has to know how to be miserable. He has to love being miserable. He has to take pride in being more miserable than any soldier or swabbie or jet jockey. Because this is war, baby. And war is hell.
如何让自己痛苦
在我年轻的时候，为了逃避兵役，我不知怎的就加入了海军陆战队。有一种说法是，海军陆战队的训练会把长着娃娃脸的新兵变成嗜血杀手。相信我，海军陆战队效率不高。然而，它所教的东西要有用得多。
海军陆战队教会你如何痛苦。
这对艺术家来说是无价的。
海军陆战队喜欢痛苦。海军陆战队因为食物更冷、装备更简陋、伤亡率比步兵、水兵或飞行员的装备都要高而得到了反常的满足，而这些都是他们所鄙视的。为什么?因为这些笨蛋不知道如何让自己痛苦。
不管他知不知道，这位致力于自己职业的艺术家自愿下地狱。在这段时间里，他将以孤独、拒绝、自我怀疑、绝望、嘲笑、蔑视和羞辱的方式吃饭。
这位艺术家一定就是那个海军陆战队员。他必须知道如何痛苦。他必须喜欢痛苦。他必须为自己比任何士兵、水兵或飞机员都悲惨而自豪。因为这是战争，宝贝。战争是地狱。
