Beethoven dumped cold water on his head. I like the seasons for writing myself. Hot weather results in sweating and heat stress and leads to boobs and beach or just hiding indoors in the A/C. 100 degree heat warps my thinking.
Well, here in Honolulu, the yearly average is about 85 Fahrenheit. IMHO, The key to writing is not where you live, but the ability to make observations and sort of filter them through your mind as you write your book, paint your paintings, what have you. Any good art is always, always based on observations and insights.
Chicago perhaps? It’s a central location with a big transportation hub. It has just about anything you’d want from a big city, but compared to other bigger cities it’s cheaper, depending on where in the city you live. It does have weather, but there are mild years in winter and mild years in summer. Again depending on where you live, the public transportation can be ace. I’m pretty insular and not involved in any type of artist community, so I could be talking out my ass, but I’d think that any type of artist could find compatriots with very little trouble.
Well, I DO NOT RECOMMEND CHICAGO. I used to live there.
And it seems to me (and feel free to politely correct me if I’m wrong) that Gunter Grass, winner of Nobel Prize for Literature 1999, was part of a rather small (and almost exclusively German, save for him) group of writers called Gruppe 47, named after the year it was founded. I know it isn’t the same thing. This was just something that came to me.
Paris in the 20’s was not so much a matter of “where” as “when.” There had been a Great War, destroying European complacency–and the lives of quite a few men. Since the end of the 19th century, artists & occultists & that Dr Freud in Vienna had been sharing dark visions. But the War convinced many that the old ways (in all the arts) were finished & ready to be replaced. ’
For all of France’s suffering, Paris had not been smashed. And it already had centuries of cultural importance. So, why not? Quite a few of the artists did struggle. Selling a book or two did not guarantee prosperity; artists tended not to have business managers & often spent their money unwisely. There were some trust fundies–often from the USA, which had suffered less in the War. But some Americans had served; the War left them in Paris.
I wonder at your selection of artists. Where’s Ford Madox Ford? (One of the Brits whose scandalous lives made them exiles. Irish, too.) And Ezra Pound–he did some fine work before he succumbed to insanity & Fascism. Speaking of Fascism, why name Dali & neglect all the other Surrealists? Because Hollywood gave him work? Andre Breton never worked for Hitchcock.
Paris in the 20’s produced famous works in English–by Americans & those Brits & Irish. So we know more about that scene than what happened in less Anglophone cities.
New York had some very good years after the Second War–partly fueled by refugees from Europe. I’m not looking for another large war to feed the arts. They do continue, if you know where to look. But knowing only English does limit one’s viewpoint. (I’m guilty!)
Well, when (and if) the War on Terrorism ends, I can see something of the sort happening again. The money being spent on the war will go back in the economy (esp. the US) and when that happens… Can you imagine the prosperity that would follow? 15 years of war over and done, money to spend, and products to buy, and both consumers and producers being truly all over the world this time around. (As far as actual solutions to the war, those belong on Great Debate.)
I’m not necessarily ignoring the other Surrealists. I could only make the list so long and I was doing it off of the top of my head. I hadn’t even heard of Ford Madox Ford until today. I’ll look up his work. Dali was among the painters that came to mind. Note: I was not aware that Dali had worked in Hollywood. I also thought of putting Ezra Pound on the list, but decided against it because he was a supporter of Fascism even during the Second World War. (That, however, is not a subject that belongs here.)
(BTW, you’re not alone in having a limited viewpoint. Before I moved to Honolulu, I was pretty limited myself. Fortunately, living in the Pearl of the Pacific, that changes VERY quickly. 
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In the Information Age, writers and artists can easily exchange ideas without gathering in one city.
That’s right. Well…it’d be nice to actually see people face to face, y’know?
I was speaking of my lack of true fluency in other languages than English.
What were you like before your parents moved you to Hawaii?
Well, it was me, my parents, my sister, and my girlfriend, who became my wife six months after we landed in Honolulu. My father got a job out in Honolulu, as did my mother. My girl and I decided to go with. My future in-laws weren’t exactly thrilled, but…then they saw the engagement ring. That got awkward really fast.
We landed in Honolulu two and a half years ago, and bought a nice condo. Been here ever since. Now, I knew full well I was going to be a writer, and most of the stuff I had read was American. (Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Ray Bradbury, Fitzgerald, the like.) Coming here, the first place I brought my future wife was the Polynesian Cultural Center. (I had visited the Island previously on vacation, so I knew where it was.) The Polynesians who worked there would tell stories, and, being a writer, I thought, “Hey! Some new sources of influence.” So, my girl and I listened.
Also contributing to my expanded view was Honolulu’s massive Asian community. The Japanese would tell stories of the 47 Ronin, and the Chinese…well, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, anyone? Living here definitely made me a better writer, and my missus loves shopping, as women are wont to do. (Honolulu brags the best shopping in the American Pacific, and I’m inclined to agree.)
In short, Hawaii has been very good to me.
So, if, theoretically, the Lost Generation artists-writers-what have you were to happen again in our century, the city that ends up getting this laurel would have to have the following criteria: (There will be no more changes to the list after this.)
A) Relatively low cost of living. Current Average Artist Salary in US: $60k a year (different sources had different answers) So, as far as relative cost of living goes, it would have to be a city where 60k a year, with smart budgeting, would take care of the bills and leave you with money left over.
B) It has to have some sort of cultural reputation already attached to it. Part of the reason so many writers went to Paris back then was because that was where the avant-garde of literature and art and music and whatnot were living, not to mention that it was already well known as a cultured city for centuries before the Lost Generation ever got there.
C) It has to offer something completely new and awesome to artists that had never been offered to them before. Paris in the 20s offered freedom to artists who, in many cases, wouldn’t have had in their home countries due to either government censorship or repressed social attitudes.
D) This is probably (and ARGUABLY) the biggest factor of them all: it has to be a continuing source of inspiration for artists for the rest of their lives. (Hemingway wrote two books about his life in Paris: The Sun Also Rises, and A Movable Feast. Fitzgerald wrote Tender is the Night based on his experiences in Paris. See where I’m going with this?)
E) FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION. This is a very important factor, for pretty obvious reasons. Art needs freedom of expression/press to flourish, and that is the main reason that most of the cities in the attached poll are in the West, or have Western-style law systems.
F) Resistant to gentrification. (Reference: South Park Season 19. Enough said.)