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| Mystery resides, not on the surface, but in the watery depths * CC Jean Stimmell: 7/31/13 |
In my last post, I talked about the bewitchment of our intelligence
by language: about how, in today’s modern society, we place too much importance
on abstract thinking, on cognition…on words themselves:
“Disavowing the infinite richness of our primal selves, we are
now trying to subsist on abstract knowledge alone, a thin gruel made up solely
of words, words and more words, building blocks upon which we have built an
empty edifice which we have arrogantly proclaimed to be the one and only
reality – and had it blessed by our newest incarnation of our supreme god whose
name is Science.”
Artists, however, have always worshiped a different god,
whether they are consciously aware of it or not. According to Jung, the real source of their art originates
neither merely from sensory input or abstract thought but from a far deeper and
richer place. Rather than the artist being the creator of art, the opposite is true: it is art that creates the artist (the artist has no choice: irrepressible
symbolic images surge up out of the collective unconscious and demand expression). As Jung has written:
“Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him
its instrument. The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his
own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purposes through him.”[1]
Artists, who are tapped into this deeper and richer place, have
always questioned the ultimate power of words, as this quote by Virginia Wolfe
makes clear:
“Now this is profound, what
rhythm is, and goes far deeper than words. A signal, an emotion, creates this
wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it; and in writing (such is
my present belief) one has to recapture this, and set this working (which has
apparently nothing to do with words) and then, as it breaks and tumbles in the
mind, it makes words to fit it.”[2]
* This photograph, taken while standing on the mossy bank of Wild Goose Pond, captures the reflections from the sky and the overhanging hemlock trees, all magically distorted by gentle, incoming waves.
3 comments:
Artists are drawn to their work...regardless of the media. We see what we are meant to see, and how we interpret it depends on what we are open to see. Too often people are too quick to just 'walk on by' without actually 'seeing'.
Well put!
Our world today is the second age of darkness, where science is alchemy and schools ban thee word "dinosaur" for fear of insulting a student taught to believe in creationism.
Science itself is a play on words these days, and seldom is taught the origins of science or the origins of art.
The sole purpose of society today is creating conformatism. Conformance to the lowest acceptable denominator.
In 1979 I took an English class for my BA, and Henry Miller was listed as one of the writers we would study. The book - "The Tropic of Cancer". On the first day of class we received the list of subjects to be covered and Henry Miller was missing. I asked the teacher after class "why"? He said students expressed concern with Miller. I told him, "well, I express deep concern he was omitted". The professor asked me, "are you willing to support Miller? If so, I will include him."
I told him, "you're damn right I'll support him/you!"
He was included and to my knowledge no one died or suffered a heart-attack.
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