[Howard Riefs]

I recently stumbled upon LettersOfNote.com, a wondrous site that gathers and sorts "fascinating letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos." Many were written by authors and politicians that have a way with the written word.

Most recently, last week the site posted a letter from 1938 that is particularly powerful. In sum: "Eager to gain some feedback on her work, aspiring young author and Radcliffe sophomore Frances Turnbull sent a copy of her latest story to celebrated novelist and friend of the family, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Before long the feedback arrived, in the form of the somewhat harsh but admirably honest reply..."

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/07/youve-got-to-sell-your-heart.html

Fitzgerald doesn't waste words, similar to the prose in his novels and short stories. Right off the bat:

"I've read the story carefully and, Frances, I'm afraid the price for doing professional work is a good deal higher than you are prepared to pay at present. You've got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner."

But after 400 words and signing his name, in the P.S. Fitzgerald does throw young Frances a compliment about her writing style:  

"I might say that the writing is smooth and agreeable and some of the pages very apt and charming. You have talent—which is the equivalent of a soldier having the right physical qualifications for entering West Point."

Circling back to golf architecture...

I'm interested in similar experiences that the architects on the board have encountered -- be it in the role of Frances putting your ego on the line and asking an established architect for pointed feedback on your work ... and/or as Fitzgerald in providing honest feedback to an aspiring architect.  How did that feedback further/impact the career of the "Frances" in this scenario?  


(My search for similar, related threads ended up empty.)

[Peter Pallotta]

Howard - can't offer anything of value, but thanks much for posting this, and for the question to architects. Now THAT is the heart of any creative process worthy of the name; that most of us have forgotten Fitzgerald's "benchmark" is one of the reasons so much work/art is lifeless and bland. (You are being kind, by the way -- the other question you could've asked architects is whether/how often they "sell their heart").

Peter

[Dan Kelly]

Howard --

Thanks so much for posting that Website.

I'm going to make it my column's Website of the Day tomorrow.

I offer you, in return, http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-10-28/news/1991301149_1_la-paix-turnbull-scott-fitzgerald.

Dan

P.S. I have had quite a bit of experience offering "somewhat harsh but admirably honest" appraisals of writers' work, back when I was a magazine editor. (I'd been a freelance writer myself, and I wanted to be more helpful to these hopeful writers than almost any editor had been to me.)

I'd say half of the writers appreciated criticism -- and half of them really, really didn't.

I suspect that most people in the creative trades get way too little honest criticism for their own good -- except from people who don't know what they're talking about. That's probably true of GCA, I 'd guess -- but would love to hear what the archies have to say.

[RJ_Daley]

I think this advice from Fitzgerald to Turnbull works in the same media of writing.  It may also work in painting or that sort of artistic personal endeavor where one can participate without the extreme cost of other factors such as land, laborers, materials etc, which is what GCA and actually building the art of golf architecture is about.  The same holds for building architects, obviously. 

One can more or less sit and pour out their heart, and express themselves in these personal art forms of writing and painting, but it takes a wad of money to design and build a golf course or building. 

So, guys like Crump and Wilson, who put their money or a clubs money on the line, with purchase and cost of labor, materials and machines (as rudimentary as that was in the 1910s-20s) had more invested in tangible assets, on top of their 'heart'. 

How many aspiring GCAs can just go out and acquire a parcel of land "fit for purpose" (MHM cite) and have the cash to assemble a team of constructors and equipment, materials, and labor to design and build what is fully in their heart, regarding their vision of GCA, without the restrictions of doing such a job in compromise to a client-patron?

So, maybe aspiring golf writers might follow this advice and guidance of Fitzgerald, a guy like Flemma puts his heart into it, and learns his craft as he goes.  Other words of advice in the letter can readily apply. 

But, I don't see it applying to the typical golf course architect situation, unless the aspiring archie is also a 1%er out of the gate and can handle all the upfront cost.

[Tony Ristola]

Howard - can't offer anything of value, but thanks much for posting this, and for the question to architects. Now THAT is the heart of any creative process worthy of the name; that most of us have forgotten Fitzgerald's "benchmark" is one of the reasons so much work/art is lifeless and bland. (You are being kind, by the way -- the other question you could've asked architects is whether/how often they "sell their heart").

Peter

Peter, Howard, Dan,

The business lacks heart... sad to say, and part of the reason why is it's not an easy road to take. I think if you truly sell heart, you can't do more than two projects concurrently... and it means you are splitting your time between them, not mailing them in, or making infrequent site-visits. Of course... one is the ideal.

Herbert Warren Wind cajoled architects to put more heart in their work, and lamented their half-hearted efforts; he is one man I would have loved to have met and asked some questions.  

Gil Hanse in an interview on GCA says (paraphrasing... and sounding like Herbert Warren Wind) that the last generation is basically a lost one because architects looked more at their pocket books than their legacy.

Heart is a tough sell, and it's tough because it is very limiting... especially with the permitting process today... but there are ways to keep busy.

Personally; I couldn't draw plans and hope somebody else got them right. Hell... if I ever drew plans for a project and couldn't build it, I'd hope the person responsible for building the place abandoned them to a large degree because if they didn't, they certainly wouldn't be building the best course, for plans are static, rigid documents demanding conformity. They are ideas up to a point in time.  And... if they did... they'd be the architect. If not, I don't think I'd want my name on it because it wouldn't be the best golf course. The client would have received an inferior and most likely heartless paint-by-numbers kit for a product. Ugh.

Architects are not perfect, for we are human... we make mistakes at the drawing board, we miss opportunities during planning, and left on their own for days or weeks at a time... no builder will build the course as envisioned by the architect. It's why the finest courses have the architect leading construction... putting his heart and soul into it. I think this is one big reason why Gil Hanse will build the Olympic Course for Rio 2016. Score a big one, an Olympic size one for... heart.

To shoot for the stars requires putting your heart into it, and that can't be done by phone, fax, sms, email or express mail. It requires people on the ground... daily is best... walking the land, talking to one another about their ideas... monitoring, editing, refining (Deming/Shewhart Cycle)... it is an investment of the most valuable asset any architect can bring to his work... his time, and with it... his heart, for I can't imagine an architect who would commit himself so and not bring his heart and soul to the project.

It's is so simple, so straight forward... but it ain't easy. That's why few courses have heart.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Sorry, who is Scott Fitzgerald and why is everyone so mad at him?

[RJ_Daley]

I'd put Tony's reply in the GCA hall of fame!  

Edit:  It occurs to me that we have two Tony gents replying.  While Tony M. is a good one, it is Tony R of whom I refer.   

[Dan Kelly]

Sorry, who is Scott Fitzgerald and why is everyone so mad at him?

He's the author of "Winter Dreams." (Cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_Dreams)

As for why everyone is so mad at him -- I don't know, but I'm guessing alcohol is involved, somehow. (The very drunk are different from you and me.)

Here's the beginning of that story I mentioned:

WINTER DREAMS
by
F. Scott Fitzgerald

SOME OF THE CADDIES were poor as sin and lived in one-room houses with a neurasthenic cow in the front yard, but Dexter Green's father owned the second best grocery-store in Black Bear--the best one was "The Hub," patronized by the wealthy people from Sherry Island--and Dexter caddied only for pocket-money.

In the fall when the days became crisp and gray, and the long Minnesota winter shut down like the white lid of a box, Dexter's skis moved over the snow that hid the fairways of the golf course. At these times the country gave him a feeling of profound melancholy--it offended him that the links should lie in enforced fallowness, haunted by ragged sparrows for the long season. It was dreary, too, that on the tees where the gay colors fluttered in summer there were now only the desolate sand-boxes knee-deep in crusted ice. When he crossed the hills the wind blew cold as misery, and if the sun was out he tramped with his eyes squinted up against the hard dimensionless glare.

In April the winter ceased abruptly. The snow ran down into Black Bear Lake scarcely tarrying for the early golfers to brave the season with red and black balls. Without elation, without an interval of moist glory, the cold was gone.

----------------- You can read the rest at http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/winterd/winter.html

[BCrosby]

Dan -

Speaking of writers who played golf, I would have loved to be the fourth in a group that included Fitzgerald, Faulkner and Orwell. Maybe we play at New Zealand and use Conan Doyle's locker.

Bob

 

[Tony_Muldoon]

If you respect the person you’ve asked for a critique there’s a chance you’ll listen.

Here’s a simplified account of a case where the thoughts were taken to heart with IMP the most spectacular results. Sondheim is the only living person I’d call a genius, and part of his genius was being able to learn from an old head.

http://plays.about.com/od/plays/a/sondheim.htm

(Apologies for two off subject posts on a very interesting thread.)

[Tom_Doak]

Howard:

I've had at least a couple hundred letters over the years from people who want to be golf course architects.  Nearly all of them are passionate and the majority are written by someone who's smart enough to have a chance of being good at it. 

A certain percentage are from people who are already successful professionals and want to cash it all in to pursue their dream, like Dr. MacKenzie did.  [Thankfully, Golf Club Atlas has reduced the percentage of those, since it allows the same people to discuss the subject passionately yet start to understand the obstacles between where they are and where they want to get.]  The rest are from students between the ages of 15-30, to whom I feel some obligation to be as kind and optimistic as Geoff Cornish was to me when I wrote the same sort of letter, even as the prospects for a successful career in golf architecture seem to be diminishing.

Of course, as R.J. points out, the nature of the business makes it impossible for these people to build a whole golf course for me to critique, but you would be amazed at some of the letters I've gotten -- reams of paper with drawings and design ideas, even entire books on the subject, ready for critique!  Those are the toughest, because the short answer to their question is the same as Fitzgerald's -- more passion -- but that the way to develop that passion is to get out in the dirt and learn from the ground up, rather than to sit in a room and draw. 

I've pretty much lost the ability to critique somebody's design of a golf hole on paper.  If it's not based on a real piece of ground, then it doesn't matter.

[Peter Pallotta]

Tony - "It's so simple, so straight forward... but it ain't easy. That's why few courses have heart."  And so few books and movies and magazine articles and paintings - at least for me.  Thanks, that was a wonderful post and a great last line.  I need to remember it: "it's simple, but it ain't easy".

Peter

[Scott Warren]

Tony:

"It's so simple ... but it ain't easy"

One of the best lines I have ever read on the creative process.

Dan:

"I suspect that most people in the creative trades get way too little honest criticism for their own good -- except from people who don't know what they're talking about."

Absolutely true in my experience. Brings to mind the old chestnut "why do those who know the least always insist on knowing it the loudest?"

The difficulty for me of a creative occupation and receiving criticism (and I know this isn't limited to creative jobs, many of my teacher friends feel the same way) is that when you are so personally invested in your work, criticism of your work is not just an appraisal of what you did, it's just as much an appraisal of who you are.

The second is much more difficult to hear than the first, which is why I believe it's all about both the person delivering the critique and what they say.

And you have to be confident and secure enough in who you are and what you're doing to know who to listen to and who to politely ignore.

[Adam Clayman]

I have nothing to add except for this reminds me of the line from "Midnight In Paris" by the Hemingway character. Words to the affect of not asking another writer for a critique, because they will hate it. If it's good they will be jealous and hate it, and, if it's bad, they will hate. It's a no win sit. 

[Jason Walker]

"Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart. You just gotta poke around."

[Mike_Young]

I've pretty much lost the ability to critique somebody's design of a golf hole on paper.  If it's not based on a real piece of ground, then it doesn't matter.

Tom,
That sentence says so much about where golf architecture has landed...    and how it will emerge into the future..IMHO...

[Brett_Morrissy]

The devil is not in the selling of your heart, but rather the selling of your soul.

There seems to be much of this in the past 20 years...

...and Howard thank you for the link to a great site.

[Howard Riefs]

Thanks, all, for the insightful discussion. Glad the website and letter/quote resonated with many of you.

Per Dan's below post, here's his column that lists http://lettersofnote.com as his "Website of the Day." Scroll Read down to the end.  (EDIT: Oops.)

http://www.twincities.com/bulletinboard/ci_21148849/why-do-coaches-coach-there-really-is-nothing

Howard --

Thanks so much for posting that Website.

I'm going to make it my column's Website of the Day tomorrow.

I offer you, in return, http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-10-28/news/1991301149_1_la-paix-turnbull-scott-fitzgerald.

Dan

Dan,

Great article from the Baltimore Sun on the Tumbul house. Fascinating.

Admittedly, I did a drive by of the home in Great Neck, NY, that the Fitzgeralds rented from 1922-1924 while Scott was writing the Great Gatsby. There's no "F. Scott Slept Here" sign as this NY Times article references.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/nyregion/01gatsby.html?pagewanted=all

The home is 8 miles north of GCGC.

[Dan Kelly]

Thanks, all, for the insightful discussion. Glad the website and letter/quote resonated with many of you.

Per Dan's below post, here's his column that lists http://lettersofnote.com as his "Website of the Day." Scroll down to the end.  

http://www.twincities.com/bulletinboard/ci_21148849/why-do-coaches-coach-there-really-is-nothing

Naturally, Howard, "we" would prefer that people read down to the end! (Emoticon omitted.)

Thanks for the link. If anyone likes what you read there, and wants more, please go to http://twincities.com/bulletinboard. There, you'll find links to dozens of Bulletin Boards.

Thanks again, Howard.

[Sean_A]

Yea, like folks have a big enough heart to sell it everytime they hit a boardroom for a pitch.  This is just another cliche which means whatever one wants it to mean.  The fact is, different strokes for different folks - its that simple.

Ciao

[Howard Riefs]

Naturally, Howard, "we" would prefer that people read down to the end! (Emoticon omitted.)

Duly edited.

[Mike Nuzzo]

I've pretty much lost the ability to critique somebody's design of a golf hole on paper.  If it's not based on a real piece of ground, then it doesn't matter.

Tom,
That sentence says so much about where golf architecture has landed...    and how it will emerge into the future..IMHO...

It sounds as if you are misinterpreting Tom's sentence to some degree
If Tom gets a sketch without topo lines it is an imaginary hole based on imaginary land - it doesn't take much skill to draw a bunch of bunkers around a fairway - probably why he hasn't been a fan of the current lido prize
If Tom gets a sketch on topo he can visualize the land and how the hole would sit atop
Tom's intern contest always had topo lines to see how everyone thought in 3D as well as understand the game of golf

His sentence doesn't discredit the plan drawing generation of architects the ASGCA has shaped ... there are other ways to do that

[Mike_Young]

Only TD knows if I misinterpreted what he is saying. 
Plans are overated and groups have tried for the last 70 years to expand the justification of detail on top of detail within plans.  Let the engineers do that.  Sure you can do a plan with some strategies but all one really needs is the routing plan...
How may really good courses in the last ten years have been built by a contractor using a set of plans?  And how many guys that sit in an office and draw plans have more work than the guys that are designing and building?  I bet not many. 
And then for the detail enthusiast...do any of those guys try to place their bunker lines etc on a drawing...
I stand by what I said...guys gave it a good try of creating a "profession" laden with detailed plans...it got figured out...cheers...

[Rick Shefchik]

Fitzgerald was a lousy golfer, by the way. Played infrequently and poorly when he was at the White Bear Yacht Club. Zelda was better, and considered rather athletic by her friend Xandra Kalman. Another source of friction between the two?

[Dan Kelly]

Fitzgerald was a lousy golfer, by the way. Played infrequently and poorly when he was at the White Bear Yacht Club. Zelda was better, and considered rather athletic by her friend Xandra Kalman. Another source of friction between the two?

If only he'd had one of those long putters he'd heard about...

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