SUCCESS & FAILURE
It’s hard to find anything—anything at all—about the topic of failure that doesn’t amount to some variation of “fail better,” or “fail your way to success.” But for most people “failing up” isn’t always an option, and success isn’t always good. As Min Jin Lee writes in her novel Pachinko, “You want to see a very bad man? Make an ordinary man successful beyond his imagination. Let’s see how good he is when he can do whatever he wants.”
In this issue of The Mockingbird, we explore the dark side of success and the bright side of failure. Not that we love failing—who does? “It was horrible at first,” says an unsuccessful inventor in a little-known Herman Melville story, “but I’m glad I’ve failed. Praise be to God for the failure!” Only when his life’s work proves ineffective is this character liberated from the mean clutches of aspiration. His face brightens with a “rapt earnestness” and he at last becomes “a good man,” praising God for his failure even on his deathbed. On a personal scale, it
