Where Does Art Belong?

I might have had ears to hear your word if it hadn't been incoherent so absurd. You vain brute. Disguised in emo glasses, sitting behind dark cups of coffee, and smug looks you believe eloquence to be synonymous with Truth. Such events are nothing more than group therapy sessions of self-pity for your kind as a whole in which the individuals laud one another for their ridiculous attempts at poetry, at writing, and so on. Have you no sense of Beauty? Do you not know that words without reason are empty? Your problems are non-existent and your solutions don't follow from anything said. You rely entirely on some pretty word which you have yet to define, yet to refine in the fires of any form of judgment vis a vis dialogue, experiment, or general experience.

I do not understand contemporary poets. It seems they're so focused on putting the perfect words in combination together that they forget what the meanings of the words were to begin with -- replacing reason with syllables. Whoo!

It's not a matter of poor interpretation, for I can acknowledge great classical poets to which I cannot interpret correctly. This requires some training on the art form of poetry, perhaps personal background if the piece requires it, and some practice in order to do it well. But there is a fine distinction between not being able to interpret and not being able to understand. The former means I understand the words being used and the statements make sense, but my connecting theme to a central theme or point is lacking. In the latter I find that the statements themselves make no sense because they are either contradictory or incoherent. In the case of this particular event today, the latter of those two options of not understanding is the case. I found myself pondering over single lines and wondering if I needed a special dictionary for the world they live in. Language is only valuable and beautiful insofar as it expresses ideas between individuals. If it is no longer capable of this then it becomes empty of meaning, and a thing without meaning has no value. I know some artists are going to want to say some things have no value outside of themselves. I wholeheartedly agree. One paints simply to do it well, plays piano to do it well, and writes to do so well. In spelling out what it means to do something well is where the answer lies.

Writing is the application of language into some structure, or work. Language has one purpose, to communicate ideas to other individuals. Thus writing is about this communication of ideas. To write well means to communicate well. If someone can communicate well then they are more suitable to describe some situation, experience, point, theme, dream, or motif. If you need a council of peers who have studied much poetry and how to read exceptionally well in order to appreciated, then you don't communicate well. And if you don't communicate well...you don't write well.

Furthermore, is it really enough to simply communicate well? I might write in a way so as to communicate perfectly how I took the most monstrous defecation all over a sleeping homeless man last night. Most people find this to be vulgar, morally atrocious, or generally not well written poetry. I would posit that there is some tacit premise that all people hold about writing well, and that is that the topic which is being written about, is worth being written about. Poems about a red leaf you saw one time might be so well communicated that I can envision it myself. But what have I gotten from it? Why have I read your poem? Or have I wasted time of my life by reading it when I could have gone out and experienced it or something greater on my own? There seems to be a need to say that those who write well write about good ideas, in whatever sense I mean by 'good.'

Good writers should be able to bring me something I can't obtain through my own experience of the world: show me an unseen connection, remind me of what is worthy to pursue in life. I don't think the arts are capable of discerning truth in any way, for I don't know what one could possibly mean by truth that comes in a non-propositional form. When I hear artist make the claim anyway I often try to make a rule of replacing their word "truth" with "stimulating feeling." But I shouldn't have to do this if they communicate well. I do however believe that art can serve as a reminder and give man a taste for something greater. If you read your Symposium we are prone to see the beauty in the particular, then it particulars, and start to question the nature of Beauty, if there is a Beauty-itself, or Being, or whatever we mean by these things that we seem to want. For surely if we have a desire it is for something, for it's not possible I desire nothing. It could be I am misguided by what it is I want, but insofar as I can be misguided it is simply a discrepancy in what a thing is versus what I thought it was. I think art can be a step into the speculative life, and I suppose that's what's been bothering me as of late, as I've sought to place art's importance somewhere in life.

So what do I mean when I say writers who communicate well should express 'good' ideas? Probably something like the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. I'm not going to set out to prove why these things are the case, simply presume them and tell you to read your Scripture and Platonic dialogues, :D suggest any art that seeks to needs structure and order to reflect the perfect harmony of these things as One. In writing poetry they should reflect, remind, and express to others why they long for them so. In painting the same should be done but by pictures. I think art can be an excellent way to rest within the Lord, to reflect on what you've come to know, grow in, realize, sort out, and so on. It is Good to dwell on the conclusions before moving on. Sometimes I'm in such a rush for more I forget this.

When I have what it is I desire I no longer desire it, but it doesn't mean I do not or cannot take joy in it. I take joy in knowing that only God can know Himself perfectly. In this way we shall always desire to be in His presence. And if there is some logical way in which it is possible to come to know God perfectly while avoiding heresy (for to know perfection is to be perfect oneself, a.k.a. God) then while the desire may leave, the Joy will not. It's a win-win situation. Awesome.

Awesome: the state of being full of awe, wonder, amazement.