On Earning

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Okay, now on to the show …

So one thing that really gets T’s goat is the notion of earning. In my typical, word-nerd fash, let’s unpack that fucker, shall we …

Wiktionary gives us these etymologies:

Etymology 1
From Middle English ernen, from Old English earnian, from Proto-West Germanic *aʀanōn, from Proto-Germanic *azanōną.

Etymology 2
Probably either:
from Middle English erne, ernen (“to coagulate, congeal”) (chiefly South Midlands)  [and other forms], a metathetic variant of rennen (“to run; to coagulate, congeal”), from Old English rinnen (“to run”) (with the variants iernan, irnan) and Old Norse rinna (“to move quickly, run; of liquid: to flow, run; to melt”), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to move, stir; to rise, spring”); or
a back-formation from earning (“(Britain regional, archaic) rennet”).

For that first one, little quick definish:

*aʀanōn
to harvest, reap, labor

Okay, so it seems to me—and feel free to chime in if you read it differently—that the original sense has to do with working something until it sets.

Now for the contemporary definitions.

From Oxford:

• obtain (money) in return for labor or services.
• (of an activity) cause (someone) to obtain (money).
• (of capital invested) gain (money) as interest or profit.
• gain deservedly in return for one's behaviour or achievements.

Whoa, that’s a doozy. We’ll unpack that one in what will likely be the bulk of this screed. But first let’s grab Merriam-Webster’s deffies:

1a: to receive as return for effort and especially for work done or services rendered
b: to bring in by way of return
2a: to come to be duly worthy of or entitled or suited to
b: to make worthy of or obtain for

And then they have this juicy lil obsolete defintion:

obsolete
: GRIEVE

That may show up again, maybe not. We’ll see. But fascinating!

And here is M-W’s etymological info:

First Known Use of earn
Verb (1)
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Verb (2)
circa 1530, in the meaning defined above


History and Etymology for earn
Verb (1)
Middle English ernen, from Old English earnian; akin to Old High German arnōn to reap, Czech jeseň autumn
Verb (2)
probably alteration of yearn

So that checks out with Wiktionary’s, though it gives us the additional Czech sense of autumn and the last bit as it relates to yearn … hmmm …

So why the hell are we talking about this? Way to bury the lede, T! If you’re still reading, here’s why …

Screenwriters and ‘earning it’

I’ve befriended a few screenwriters over the years, but mostly I hear about this on commentary tracks. And before I tear into it, lemme first say, I get it. You know, broadly, anyway. No one likes a cheap turn in storytelling. But with many of these writers, it’s almost an obsession that any significant event must be ‘earned.’ This is, as best I can tell, an arbitrary, eye-ballin’ it kind of assessment, whereby the writer turns the script this way and that and says, “Yeah. I think I earned that.” Common focal points seem to be putting the character through sufficient hell and self-doubt and or having them tested in some or multiple ways. Likewise, the old Aristotelian notion that conflict is the essence of drama is like the fucking bible for these folks. No conflict, no story is how they see it—which is the antithesis of many literary writers.

Just to be clear: it’s not that I disagree. It’s that I also believe there are many other ways of telling (and more importantly enjoying) stories without such baggage (cf. my upcoming article on how lead characters can never change—another maxim that irritates the shit outta me).

One of my biggest beefs with writing for television is this idea that there has to be conflict all the time or the audience is going to tune out. That’s not good storytelling; that’s desperate storytelling. And it gets tiresome. Some of the most enjoyable moments in television are when characters get to just be. We get to just spend time with them in their environment, which is a welcome reprieve from our daily struggles. We need more of this, but first you have to convince writers that this is a good thing. Otherwise, they’re going to keep jerking off to conflict ad nauseum.

Yay, Capitalism!

Then there’s earning, son! We gots to get paid, yeah. That’s kind of a reality of life that’s hard to turn away from, even for those who renounce money altogether. And under our current sociopolitical economic system that we call capitalism, we see a a demand to not only ‘generate’ income, but also to ‘provide’ for our families, and to ‘achieve’ greatness (in recognizability, which translates to sales). There may be some high-minded folks who value art for the sake of art, but the average citizen cappy is going to have to get paid, and they’re going to think hard about who deserves their time and money … oh, wait. No they’re not! They’re going to give it to the worst creeps around. Why? Because those are the ones who are determined to take it, without earning it. And that whole process will be cloaked in ‘annual earnings.’

Now, I’m white and middle-class, so I know I probably see this inextricably in those terms. It’s usually not about survival for me, at least not on the day-to-day—not these days, anyways. But that’s the fucked up thing, isn’t it? Why is it that way for anyone ever? Clearly it shouldn’t be, and we plainly have vastly more than enough to go around the world. The whole concept of earning seems to be wrongheaded. Maybe it wasn’t. Perhaps there was a time when it was crucial and made sense. But like so many concepts we take for granted in our everyday lives, this one has to go; or, at the very least, be stringently re-evaluated and re-defined.

Have I earned it? Did I provide you with sufficient whatever to get you to think it over? Or did you just roll your eyes throughout? Lemme know in the commies below.

Xoxo,

T

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