Subject: RE: Daumier-Smith and Empathy
From: Andy Norris (AndyNorris@tireswing.net)
Date: Thu Jul 26 2001 - 10:46:29 GMT
At 03:35 AM 2001-07-26, you wrote:
>-----Original Message-----
> >>From:"owner-bananafish@roughdraft.org"
> <owner-bananafish@roughdraft.org> on behalf of
> >>"Andy Norris" <AndyNorris@tireswing.net>
> >>
> >>This is a pretty frequently-discussed topic. The teaching assistant who
> >>attempts to justify their position by bringing out every pebble of
> >>potential meaning they've ever heard v. the student that says,
> "anything is
> >>art."
>
>I never said that!
an: I never said you did. But it doesn't mean there aren't people who hold
that view. I've seen 'em out there. They walk among us!
> >>As much as
> >>Zazie doesn't like the voice of the pedantic scholar asserting meaning
> >>where it may or may not exist, I dislike the voice of the precocious
> >>student who says there's no meaning. I used to be that student, and I
> >>recognize in that petulant, immature voice (that used to be mine) a smug
> >>laziness. A sense of superiority.
>
>But isn't this YOUR petulantism (or whatever the noun is) creeping into
>the discussion here?
>Appreciating your openness
an: I'm not asserting myself or my views as superior to anyone or anyone
else's here. Sorry if it seems otherwise. I've just walked both sides of
the fence, and I am no more than an amateur enjoying art anymore. My
aspirations to create any of my own are locked away. At least for now.
> >>And I think that's pretty close to the bottom line of the answer to the
> >>question, "What is art?" Art is a diversion.
>
>A diversion? That is certainly a very light approach ...
an: I wouldn't call it a light approach. Terse perhaps. But not necessarily
light. Art is maybe what Jive Monkey had with him on an aircraft carrier to
divert him from the monotony of a three-month commitment to the sea. Art is
the book of John Cheever's stories that I've been consulting to divert me
from worries about money or work before drifting off to sleep. For some
lucky people, art hits them so early and/or so strongly that it diverts
them from the rest of an "ordinary" life. Perhaps art was the diversion
Holden needed very badly. Had Holden found art in writing about history,
perhaps he never would have had to suffer the old man's inability to
properly toss a magazine onto the bed. Had he been able to imagine and
paint the ducks flying south or stuck in the ice, he could have freed that
part of his questioning mind. Or not. Maybe I'm wrong. Would hardly be the
first time today, and it's only 9:30 in the morning.
Perhaps art is no more than the subconscious of one person speaking to the
subconscious of another.
If nothing else, Art is my dad, anyway.
Andy
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