I have thinking about “ART” a lot lately
and what is the connection between “ART” and our lives…
What is the value or point of “ART” in our lives?
and I was thinking about novels like those written by
Jane Austin or Tolstoy… They are novels by virtue of having
a plot or a narrative, a story is told, a story with a beginning, middle
and end… Now that story can be told in hundreds of different ways…
we can tell hundreds of different stories with the exact same
people and/or events……… for example, the movie “clueless” is a
1996? movie that is an adaptation of a Jane Austin novel… we have
a novel that has been changed but the basic features are still there if
you know the source material…In music, I have heard many different
versions of songs like “my funny valentine” and the Beatles song, “yesterday”
we can adapt and change every single story and plot to include or become
something else…
so we have “plot” a story which every “ART” has, even painting…
has a plot as we also have plays, music, movies, all of which has a “plot”
a story to tell…
so to return to a point raised earlier, I have noted how human beings
have become alienated, disconnected, atomized, from society and from
each other and in many cases, we have become alienated and disconnected
from ourselves…
what if, what if we are alienated and disconnected and atomized because
we don’t have a plot to follow. we don’t see our lives as having a plot,
a storyline in which we can follow and be part of…….
we see this also in the massive alienation and disconnect that is within
society in individuals because of those powerful forces that are not
within our control such as exhibited by capitalism which is driven by
the “invisible hand of god” and communism which is driven by the
forces of class relations and social conflict driven by a materialistic
interpretation of historical development… this historical development is
outside of and beyond the control of individual people, just as capitalism
is driven by the invisible hand of the “market place” which is also outside
of the control of individual people… and we have religions which are
based on the outside forces of god and within Buddhism which is the uncontrolled
forces of reincarnation which is outside the forces of individuals…
much of human ism’s and ideologies are based on forces that are beyond
and outside of the control of human beings……
when we have a “plot” we can compare and contrast our lives with the “plot”
and the storyline and we can see or compare where we are and what is our choices
in life……
we can even have a “plot” in such modernist painting as Duchamp “Nude descending a
staircase” for which we can create an entire story around a nude descending a staircase,
a beginning or an ending or even the denouement of a story…a plot exists within
a modern painting like “nude descending a staircase” if we are willing to create one…
and what would the plot or story of your life look like?
we have become isolated, alienated, disconnected from our lives because
we no longer have a clear and precise story or plot we can tell about ourselves…
to ourselves and to others. think of the cave man, think of the story they
told about themselves in which they were trying to survive against incredible
odds against all sorts of adversities…
or think of the medieval human being who had a story to tell about their
place in life and where they fit into society……
but modern man, what is our story? what is our “plot”?
we need a story to compare and contrast where we are
and what human beings are and what is our possibilities………
write your own story, write you own plot… and what does it say about
you???
we have become disconnected from the myths and superstitions that
were the stories of society and life since the beginning…
one such story is how we are “meant” to search for god
and another story is how instead of god, we found doubt
and within that doubt, we found wisdom… not knowledge,
but wisdom… for it is only from doubt can we begin the
story, our story of our search for wisdom……….
so what story, what plot are you going to tell us about your life?
what story is your story about your past, present and future?
what is the plot of your life?
and that is “ART”…and if done correctly that story is also philosophy
and history and economics and biology and physics and or in fact,
any study we engage in……. that is our story… the study we engage with
becomes our plot, our story…I study who we are and who I am in terms
of philosophy and history but you can engage in a study of your story, your
plot by any means you wish… even “ART” can be your path to study
your story, your plot………so tell me?
what is your plot?
Kropotkin