On what praise adds

The passage sits in a stretch where Marcus is arguing with the part of himself that still wants to be seen. He answers it with objects: an emerald, a piece of gold, a flower. None of them is improved by applause or diminished by silence. The claim is austere and a little cold, aimed at a specific temptation he clearly felt: to measure the worth of a thing, or a life, by the noise it draws from others. The whole entry is Marcus talking himself out of needing an audience.

This week the Venice Film Festival opened by giving George Clooney its first Golden Lion for lifetime achievement, with Laura Dern delivering the tribute before a premiere on the Lido. A lifetime award is a strange gift: it hands a person the applause of a room in exchange for the whole span of their work. The honor is real and worth receiving graciously. But Marcus would note that the films were already whatever they were before the prize, and the emerald was already green. Praise records value. It does not create it.