The opening paragraph of Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence:
Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically. The cataclysm has happened, we are among the ruins, we start to build up new little habitats, to have new little hopes. It is rather hard work: there is no smooth road into the future: but we go round, or scramble over the obstacles. We've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen.
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Monday, May 5, 2008
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Reading IS sexy
If reading is dangerous, this is why- it conjures up nostalgia for things, times, and places I have no right to be nostalgic about. If it is hard enough to live in our own lifetime, what burden it is we are putting ourselves to read books, poems that come packed full of another one, two, three lifetimes worth of memories, emotions, passions, histories. And how is it that their romances seem so much more passionate, their fights actually worth dying for, and why does it always seem like the best time to be an artist was in their time and not at all my very own. It stirs up emotions and convinces you, so well, that YOU felt this. Then the guilt, of no longer feelng it. The guilt of letting it evaporate over some tens and hundreds of years we had no control of. But we should have!
Right now I am reading-
Oscar Wilde A Certain Genius by Barbara Belford (biography)
De Profundis by Oscar Wilde (his prison letters to Bosie)
Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse
The ADD that makes me have at least three paintings going at once also carries over to reading (and some would say to all aspects of my life.) However, I'm convinced reading a biography, a non-fiction, and a fiction really just counts as reading one thing.
"All existance seemed to be based on duality, on contrast. Either one was a man or one was a woman, either a wanderer or sedentary burgher, either a thinking person or a feeling person-no one could breathe in at the same time as he breathed out, be a man as well as a woman, experience freedom as well as order, combine instinct and mind. One always had to pay for one with the loss of the other, and one thing was always just as important and desirable as the other."
from Narcissus and Goldmund
Right now I am reading-
Oscar Wilde A Certain Genius by Barbara Belford (biography)
De Profundis by Oscar Wilde (his prison letters to Bosie)
Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse
The ADD that makes me have at least three paintings going at once also carries over to reading (and some would say to all aspects of my life.) However, I'm convinced reading a biography, a non-fiction, and a fiction really just counts as reading one thing.
"All existance seemed to be based on duality, on contrast. Either one was a man or one was a woman, either a wanderer or sedentary burgher, either a thinking person or a feeling person-no one could breathe in at the same time as he breathed out, be a man as well as a woman, experience freedom as well as order, combine instinct and mind. One always had to pay for one with the loss of the other, and one thing was always just as important and desirable as the other."
from Narcissus and Goldmund
Saturday, February 2, 2008
O.Wilde
"There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely-or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands."
Oscar Wilde from Lady Windermere's Fan
Oscar Wilde from Lady Windermere's Fan
Friday, February 1, 2008
Chicken or the Egg
I was compelled to write a sort of an essay after somewhat randomly contemplating the relationship of Henry Miller, Anais Nin, and June Miller tonight. Then watching this clip from the movie "Henry and June" and especially hearing the lines "You just want experience. You're a writer. You make love to whatever you need" got me in that special place and made me want to touch upon a subject I often ponder around and about-
This is a very powerful scene from the movie “Henry and June," the point in which their respectably established roles all at once are played out, stripped, swapped, dropped, exposed, switched, regained, etc, etc. Everyone is honest, lying, the victim, the manipulator, and all of these conflicting emotions are actually being felt genuinely. How is this possible? The only answer is that it just seems to be the nature of the artist and the muse relationship.
Artist and muse dynamic has always been something I’ve been intrigued by. It is an intricate and delicate relationship that never is simply what it seems to be, what it ought to be- one that inspires and one that is inspired, then both benefit, grow, and compliment one another with the most beautiful and satisfying results (consistently and continuously) may it be a piece of art work, song, poem, or a book.
The lines often are blurred. The role, also. Is it that the artist takes because he/she is in power and the muse gives because he/she gives up power. Or the artist relays because he/she is powerless while the muse is powerful and controls. Could it ever be equal? A partnership? As with most things in life balance seems to be the most difficult thing to find in this relationship. And when a product (painting, song, poem, or story) is presented is it to satisfy only the artist, only the muse, ideally both but how easily is this achieved? Is it possible? The artist is selfish to portray and steal from the muse what he/she only wishes to while the muse is vain and self-important expecting to be portrayed as his/her fantasy self. For both to be satisfied the process seems masturbatory for both parties and if both are dissatisfied, completely volatile and destructive and even worse, wasteful.
Ultimately I believe that since it is the artist who has the creative power with it, also holds the responsibility. But the artist temperament often gives little room for maintaining full control. Is it then always one the master and the other the slave where neither ever stays as one and the role changes without clear boundaries that can ever be set? At any moment the power can shift, there never seems to be stability. But this may be what drives it. Those that create and those that want to be at the heart of it, perhaps can not exist in stability or wish to.
The relationships of Henry, Anais, and June is especially interesting and telling of the confusing nature of the artist-muse relationship because the two artists (writers) perceive the same muse, June, in two very different perspectives which lead to a creation of two very different literary characters. All the while Henry and Anais also are powerless to June under different circumstances leading up to and after the creative process. June's expectations and needs too vary for the two. And through out it all there are no clear boundaries or sensibility in the dynamic that at times is explosive creatively and beautifully while at other times explosive in the ugliest ways.
Recommended reads-
Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
Henry and June Anais Nin
Henry Miller Wikipedia
Anais Nin Wikipedia
June Miller Wikipedia
This is a very powerful scene from the movie “Henry and June," the point in which their respectably established roles all at once are played out, stripped, swapped, dropped, exposed, switched, regained, etc, etc. Everyone is honest, lying, the victim, the manipulator, and all of these conflicting emotions are actually being felt genuinely. How is this possible? The only answer is that it just seems to be the nature of the artist and the muse relationship.
Artist and muse dynamic has always been something I’ve been intrigued by. It is an intricate and delicate relationship that never is simply what it seems to be, what it ought to be- one that inspires and one that is inspired, then both benefit, grow, and compliment one another with the most beautiful and satisfying results (consistently and continuously) may it be a piece of art work, song, poem, or a book.
The lines often are blurred. The role, also. Is it that the artist takes because he/she is in power and the muse gives because he/she gives up power. Or the artist relays because he/she is powerless while the muse is powerful and controls. Could it ever be equal? A partnership? As with most things in life balance seems to be the most difficult thing to find in this relationship. And when a product (painting, song, poem, or story) is presented is it to satisfy only the artist, only the muse, ideally both but how easily is this achieved? Is it possible? The artist is selfish to portray and steal from the muse what he/she only wishes to while the muse is vain and self-important expecting to be portrayed as his/her fantasy self. For both to be satisfied the process seems masturbatory for both parties and if both are dissatisfied, completely volatile and destructive and even worse, wasteful.
Ultimately I believe that since it is the artist who has the creative power with it, also holds the responsibility. But the artist temperament often gives little room for maintaining full control. Is it then always one the master and the other the slave where neither ever stays as one and the role changes without clear boundaries that can ever be set? At any moment the power can shift, there never seems to be stability. But this may be what drives it. Those that create and those that want to be at the heart of it, perhaps can not exist in stability or wish to.
The relationships of Henry, Anais, and June is especially interesting and telling of the confusing nature of the artist-muse relationship because the two artists (writers) perceive the same muse, June, in two very different perspectives which lead to a creation of two very different literary characters. All the while Henry and Anais also are powerless to June under different circumstances leading up to and after the creative process. June's expectations and needs too vary for the two. And through out it all there are no clear boundaries or sensibility in the dynamic that at times is explosive creatively and beautifully while at other times explosive in the ugliest ways.
Recommended reads-
Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller
Henry and June Anais Nin
Henry Miller Wikipedia
Anais Nin Wikipedia
June Miller Wikipedia
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