Quote:
Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze
Artists and thinkers who can find rich people to cultivate them are rarer than people claim -- especially now. There's a reason so many of them die poor.
If you're open to talking to people like that, and won't be passive-aggressive or say spiteful things, then I doubt you'd be left out.
You don't often hear from them on internet forums because of the constant barrage of what Roland Barthes called "neither-nor criticism," but places like the Nightmare Network are relatively free of that (since the influences are eclectic but the central genre tends to be dismissed as tasteless -- which is a great mix if you're looking for erudition without close-mindedness).
Facebook can also be an excellent place for discussions. Befriend a few writers whom you might think are out of your league and you'll soon be talking to them about whatever subjects they introduce.
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Thinking about this some more, I don't think the real benefit of the salons was intellectual. Ideas are really a dime a dozen. It's effecting them into money that is the hard part. The salons were meeting places of influential people (whether in ideas, industry, government,...). The largest benefit was probably the networking among them. You could bring an idea, and then get help in effecting it, and make money from it. So, although online forums where ideas are hashed out can be a help to an artist, it's not the same as being among the movers and shakers of the world.