Nero Valencia drifted into the job of gunjin whereas Kyra Davis had always known what she wanted to be but, as Valencia points out, she already belonged to Fireball.
Some people know from an early age that they want to be a (fill in the blank) whereas others complete their education to whatever level, then check out the job or career options. I took the latter course and wound up in careers guidance. Poul Anderson completed a science degree, then immediately became a fiction writer for the rest of his life. Larry Niven (I think) inherited enough money that he could do whatever he wanted which was writing. I know of two guys who taught school and wrote, then were able to make the transition to full time writing. Now everyone else can say what happened to them or at least reflect on it.
3 comments:
I graduated law school ( including a year of apprenticeship) with the settled conviction that I’d rather shovel manure than be a lawyer. I knew I wanted to write; I finished my first novel in law school, and then worked odd jobs until 1988, when I went full-time.
I failed first year year of law because I got into it without knowing what I was doing. I should have chosen philosophy in the first place.I was already philosophizing without realizing that that was what I was doing.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I'm sorry the law was such a disappointment to you. I recall you commenting on how the lawyer you were apprenticed to was a somewhat disreputable person. And nothing like the principles and philosophy of law as enunciated by Sir William Blackstone in his COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.
I went thru a Chinese phase many years ago, and one very interesting book I read was LAW IN IMPERIAL CHINA: EXEMPLIFIED BY 190 CH'ING DYNASTY CASES, by Derk Bodde and Clarence Morris. Before the later years of the Ch'ing, codified law focused mostly on criminal law. And it was interesting to see how different Chinese penal law was from the Anglo/American. But that did not mean Chinese jurists had no concern for justice, it was expressed differently from what we would think was natural.
Ad astra! Sean
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