Thoughts about Art and God

[mr_reed]

Why listen to music? Read books? Watch films? What are we trying to do by indulging in such things? It seems that most people want to be entertained; pacified; merrily carried along until life sniffs them out, glimpses them from the corner of its eye, and squeezes them back into the usual stresses of work, family and society. But such a menial

Comments

[immortalrite]

I believe it was Ananda Coomaraswamy who said that Art and Prayer are one in the same activity.

[insert_nanotech]

Well, I wouldn't say entertainment is always a waste of time, if not indulged in to excess. Although, I will admit, I've progressively lost my taste for it as I've grown older. I suppose having a limited time left -- unless anti-aging happens soon -- has inspired to me to focus on only those things that are central.

Anyway, you've just impressed me. And I don't impress real easy. Mind if I add you?

[mr_reed]

I would go so far as to say that entertainment is useless for this reason: although not all art is entertaining, a lot of it is. Some paintings are difficult for many, especially among the uninitiated, to look at-Goya’s Disasters and Black paintings, for example-and many have trouble listening to classical music. But there is a lot of really good art out there that is also very entertaining: Shakespeare and Beethoven, especially the Ninth, (in my own case at lease) for example. Entertaining art is superior to entertainment, because you get enjoyment out of it and the transcendental experience. The problem is that many today find the transcendental experience challenging-they just don’t “get” it, as they might say-which makes them feel unequal, and of course that’s impossible because we’re all equal, all Gods Children. So we can all get along so long as everything is reduced to a lowest common denominator that everyone can understand and accept and buy

[insert_nanotech]

Whether different things can coexist within the same space depends on the properties of that space. First, its size; how large it is. Secondly, the way it is structured and organized, its pattern of boundaries, means of provision, transport and communication, and the like: mountains, rivers, plains, roads, walls, carpeting, the local convenience store, and the like. There are some office environments in which people can barely coexist while ostensibly trying to do the same job. Conversely, a person who likes loud music and one who prefers silence can coexist quite well in a structure with thick walls and good acoustics

[insert_nanotech]

I’ve gone on a bit here, I realize, but these ideas float around in my head always: while I work, while I sleep, while I read (very distracting, I might add), while I meditate. God forces me to express them in any means possible, so they might become part of reality, latched onto the airwaves of the objective world to be shared by all who breathe it in.

Oh, another thing, mr_reed: you and I are very much alike in this respect. I, too, feel that I am... "channel" is the wrong term... an expression of Providence, and part of my life purpose is to express and communicate the patterns of reality that I sense. As I put it, to "spread my memes".

I'll warn you that my worldview is not identical to yours, and some of the things in my journal may be challenging. But, we are both adults, as I can see clearly from your posts.