I have some real mixed feelings on this book. The author, Amanda Palmer, is definitely not my type of person. She’s way too artsy for me and about as artsy as you can get. I can appreciate most art, but I certainly don’t live it and wouldn’t want to. She lives it. Her life is like a piece of art. Not one that I particularly appreciate; however, one good thing to come from this book is that I understand it quite a bit better. I feel like I understand street performers in a way I never did before.
Going into the book blind, having not known who Amanda Palmer was, I was hoping or expecting to find a guide on how to ask for things. Maybe about how to be more assertive and that sort of stuff. Perhaps the message would be told through life stories like The Art of Learning, which is a book I highly recommend, and I can accept anecdotal stories that teach lessons.
However, this book didn’t tackle the issue directly at all. The book is the story of the author’s life and a little bit about how asking fit in. I’ll give it credit for being interesting throughout, she’s lived quite a life. It was also emotional at times. However, I don’t really think I learned much of anything about the art of asking. I guess, just ask. That might be the sum total of the wisdom on that topic.
Okay, there might be a little bit more. There was a small discussion about why it works for some people and not for others. Asking is about building/continuing a relationship, it’s an exchange, it’s not just begging. A musician who has interacted with his fans will be much more likely to get what he asks for than someone who keeps himself separate from his fans.
In one part there was a discussion about being shameless. The author compared it to being fearless and how shameless is seen as bad, but fearless is seen as good and she didn’t understand why. Shame and fear are both negative, right? So why is lacking one bad and lacking the other good. I don’t think shame is bad. Doing shameful things is bad. Shame itself is an internal moral compass telling you that you’re doing something wrong. If you’re shameless, that compass is broken. Of course, fear isn’t all bad either. It usually is a warning of danger and being fearless is probably a sign that you’re not very bright or that you don’t value your own life. Neither is actually good, but I’d still put fearless as better than shameless.
In my circle of acquaintances, I would hesitantly recommend this book to Twitch streamers. I’ve known a few of them who have issues asking for money and they feel awkward taking the money their fans want to give them. This book may put them at ease a little bit more. It can help the streamers understand that it is an exchange and that exchange is a token of appreciation for what they’ve done.
Having said that, the book is all over the place. It doesn’t really follow a timeline and it doesn’t really stick to subjects very well either. In some ways, it feels like an editor really needed to go through this book and do some major re-arranging. However, the messiness does fit the author quite well and maybe it needs to be a messy book if it’s going to be about her life.
I’d also say that Neil Gaiman comes out of the book looking like a saint.