This is the third post I have started this morning. The first two didn't get off the ground because I didn't know what I was talking about. Now this is a testimony to your own intelligence and high standards, because if you didn't have that, I would have tried to get away with it anyway. However, I am stubborn, so here are the conclusions, in each case, which I would have tried to reach had I done so.
Art is a simplification and a smoothing of real life. It has ups and downs, but not as steep, and not as high nor low. Art is the rolling hills of Sicily, real-life is the Rocky Mountains. This doesn't always seem to be the case, and I guess it stands to reason that a representation of something is usually going to be smaller, simpler, have less elements in it, and more non-essential elements removed from it, just due to the human limitations during the creation of the art in the first place. Like I said, I don't know what I'm talking about. The musical scale, though, is very small and manageable compared to the range of sounds we normally hear, from normal human speech to crashing waves. Music is a very simple representation of life and seems to be more about capturing only the feeling of something, rather than the creation of an historical document of sound waves. Music is quieter than the world*.
Things with a single purpose are more aesthetically pleasing than things with multiple purposes. This was pointed out to me by my friend during a texted discussion last week. A motorcycle designed strictly for off-road use is more visually and aesthetically appealing, usually, than one designed for multiple purposes. Of course. It's simpler. Consider most SUVs, or, say, "crew cab" pick up trucks. Ugly. Now think of an old flat-bed truck. Elegant.
A poem about one thing, of course would demonstrate both things.
Just wanted to get that off my chest. If I write any more about either of those things, however, I will start to sound stupid, (considering that I am at my smartest when I keep my mouth shut.)
*OK. Not Blue Cheer although I worked on the printing press for a newspaper once and it was fricking loud.
My Faulkner professor used to say all literature is an attempt to run order through chaos. I think that goes with what you're saying about art.
ReplyDeleteWhat I really could have used was an attempt to run order through Faulkner, but that's another story.
"All literature is a footnote to Faust. I have no idea what I mean by that."
ReplyDelete--Woody Allen
Can't remember if I've mentioned this before: creeping dementia possibly: I was with my sister the preacher at a coffee shop and I was having a smoke outside.
ReplyDeleteThen, to my astonishment, two blokes in a 1930s style and attached sidecar (of course it was attached) pulled up. I gaped in awe and went over and spoke to the fellow huddled in the sidecar and he told me (while his friend was off doing something)that the magnificent object had been made to order in Russia.
They both waved as they beetled off. Good heavens it was lovely and signal art.
Ahem. Neglected to put in the word motorcycle. Sorry. ;)
ReplyDeleteThat must have been a Russian "Ural" motorcycle, which are sold with the side-car most of the time. I think they are very cool looking. Funny how the Russians named their motorcycle the Ural, and we named a pickup truck "Avalanche." I cringe and giggle at the same time.
ReplyDeleteDid a search. Thing has a reverse gear? Bitchin'.
ReplyDelete"You meet the nicest people on a Ural." Somehow it just doesn't ring like it does with Honda. I will say, however, that if you pushed one off a cliff, along with a Royal Enfield at the same time, the Ural would stay aloft just a bit longer due to wind resistance.
ReplyDelete