Production of a Thing vs. Practice of Making It

In her 2014 National Book Foundation Medal speech, Ursula K. Le Guin drew a line: "the production of a market commodity and the practice of an art." The production of a thing is concerned with the thing itself — did the novel get written? did it sell? is it good by the standards the market recognizes? The practice of making is concerned with the maker — what did the act of writing do to the writer? did the struggle with the material change her capacity for attention, her honesty, her understanding? These are not two descriptions of the same activity. They are different activities that produce identical objects from the outside while being opposite in their effects on the practitioner. The commodity can be made by anyone, including a machine. The practice requires a specific person undergoing a specific transformation,