Monday, January 30, 2006

Funny and Serious

Very funny.

One mistake though. Julien Sorel's head was cut off not because he slept with two women but because [SPOILER!] he shot at one of them! Also I didn't know that Tolstoy "slept with his serfs". Reportedly, he also felt bad about it. Ha ha!

And this is a serious article/book review about how valuable art is...

[...]doing art matters because it is in our very nature as homo faber to want to shape the ordinary into the special, that such activity can assuage the loneliness that is modern man's particular burden, and that art mystically helps us to feel that we matter as individuals -- that we, in effect, truly exist.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I was reading Derida's article, I was thinking about our discussions of ART. Looks like Carey has written book keeping you in mind... :)

Don't send hate mail to him !!!

Anonymous said...

He didn't shot one of them, he shot at one of them.

wildflower seed said...

Wonderful article. Echoes my own feelings - that art more often divides than unites - very beautifully. Thanks for the link.

Alok said...

Bhaya: Sorry, my mistake. Will correct it. So you finished reading the book!

I actually agree with everything in the article. I don't at all approve of snobbery, in artistic tastes or any other thing.

What I find sad and what makes me angry is the way in which art is turned into commodity meant for mass consumption or when it is used to flatter people's illusions about themselves and their lives. When you criticise this, you are called a snob, which is wrong.

I will rather send a thank you note to the writer and the reviewer :)

VB: Yes, the article was good and the paragraph I quoted so beautifully captures how it all works.