The Value of a Thoughtful Hand

This is the last week before I head out into the world armed with my shiny new degree. Of course I know it isn't shiny in the literal sense, but they do shine for us don't they? Isn't that what they hold out at the end of the long, long, long tunnel? The proverbial carrot on a string, if you will. So the question comes up: Now what?

 I will be the proud owner of a Liberal Arts Degree in Creative Studies (writing). And like anyone who has dared the pursuit of such an overlooked degree program, I face the challenge of finding where exactly I fit in among the rest of the professional world. And I have often confronted questions of my future from strangers and friends alike wondering what I could do with such a degree.

 "Why would you bother studying writing, literature, and poetry? Doesn't that seem kind of frivolous in such a tough job market?"

I don't know exactly what the future holds for me, and I won't quote the obvious connection here about certain less frequented roads. Writing, like any art, after all, is the study of the human condition and that is always especially delicious fodder.
"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competence that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become." --C.S. Lewis

There's Good Literature. And There's Good Literature.

What I love about literature-- really good litterature-- is that it remains constant. It is unvesal, continually relevent. My particularly favorite time in literary history is the Modernist Movement. Through the writings of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Eliot, Pound, Woolf, Joyce, and others we finally get a strong foothold on coming to terms with the individual. Of non-conformity as well as an understanding of when to pull together with a common goal. The first time we really see an effort of artists to get in the face of propiety, rules, and expectations and go against that grain. Its an upfront assualt on the prervious eras and generations. In comparison to the life span of literature and story telling, the idea of the novel and how it was best put to use was sill, well, novel. While the novel's form went through changes in a time when artists reached beyond and into he deepest parts of our hearts and psyche, the stories of this modern movement remain relevent to this day. We get to see the inner workings of mankind, the struggles, successs, failures, and challenges we all still struggle with. The disatisfaction with post-WWI Europe is no different than feelings post-Vietnam or even towards current military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our economic crisis echoes that at the fall of the twenties with the stock market crash. Good literature is beautiful. Engaging. Great literature holds up a mirror for us to recognize our own lives on the pages. Great literature is beautiful and refelctive remaining so consistantly throughout time.

The Other Eliot

T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land is probably his most talked about and studied poem. And while I admire the complexities of this impressive work, I find myslef very much drawn to a poem seemingly often overlooked but very popular and influential within our culture through movies, music, and literature.

The Hallow Men is my particular favorite Eliot poem. And it continues to be referrenced and relevent to this day. In talking about Eliot and The Waste Land this week, I wanted to pay tribute to what I thought was yet another work of mastery.

To show just how much this poem has influenced our culture, below is a clip from Apocolypse Now. Marlon Brando reads an exerpt from the poem in a film based on the book The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad which is referrenced in the poem The Hollow Men. It all goes full circle in a really beautiful way.

Calling the Sandman

Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams? --Alfred Lord Tennyson

    I love this quote. Maybe it is my optimism that I cling desperately to. Or perhaps I have learned enough to know that following our heart is always the truest path, even if it ends in a way that seems bad or disappointing at the time. "You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one." And I always hope to be. It is such a wonderfully satisfying thing to find confirmation in the words of great artists.

Allowing the Things We Don't Always Want

    Concentrating on the conflicts and struggles of people through the study of art and literature, we get to see a deeper side than we might through history books. That's part of the beauty of these forms. They are mediums of personal expression that show the flawed, truly human side to those who came before us. We can understand how and why they formed the opinions they did and how they saw each other.

     Seeing this also creates a deeper understanding in one's own ideals and beliefs, both in regards to the subject and the form in which they are expressed. Usually I am not a strong advocate of the belief "Art for Art's sake". I have always felt that the need of expression, comes from some place whether or not you understand what that place is. But as I dive deeper into the history of art and the society surrounding it I see the criticism of one artist by another or by the standing propriety of the time that so often seems unnecessary. Christina Rossetti's "In An Artist's Studio" for example. While I stand by her argument for the equal treatment and acceptance of women, it makes me reconsider the idea of art for art's sake. Sometimes we want to push the limits and challenge the status quo, the idea of beauty, and the ways of the world. And sometimes, I think that we just want to see something that's pretty and pure and the fabric of our imagination. But above all, either one is the perfect expression as it was meant to be. Sometimes the act is reason enough.

Hidden Truths

I re-read Mary Shelly's Frankestein this week. It has been about a decade since I read it last. While I remembered the happeinings of the story, I was surprised by how much I had seemingly missed the first go round. All of the underlying messages laced throughout the characters and the undfolding plot. Where it initially gave me a decent couple of hours of entertainment-- a deeper look at the story I had seen rendered and rerendered so many times-- this time provided a scource of self assesment.

The idea of questioning what makes us human, and who would win in a battle of Nurture versus Nature?

I learned a great deal more about the story and my own opinions by re-reading the book. Something I think it is important to note. IF we go through life only giving these things a preliminary glance before moving on, we loose so much. Why read a book again? Because there is so much more waiting underneath the surface that can't be seen when you're wrapped up in plot and climax.

When you know what is going to happen, you can see the purpose of everything so much more clearly. If only we could use this trick in real life.

A Fearless Endeavor and the Importance of Offense

"Better murder an infant in its cradle than nurse an unacted desire." -- William Blake

I think this sums up his blunt, unhindered desire for truth, perfectly. His shocking observations are what delivers the meaning of his message. He could just as easliy have said: To ignore one's desires is to kill the life that desired it. But the message comes across with the jolt it needs to reach the soul of the complacent. Something I think he strives to do over and over. Because it is those that have lost the ability to see-- have become too lost in the beat of the drum to hear-- that need to be jarred. 

 I love this about Blake.  He has no fear when it comes to expressing his truth. And that's the purpose of a poet, isn't it? To find the truth of the world and tell it through the filter of their vision so that we can capture the essence. To be fearless in observation and expression.

Love it. Love it. Love it.