Originally published by UK Column The experience of great art is similar to the experience of a great scientific discovery. There is a common sentiment of “epiphany.” It is the strangely familiar feeling of remembering something for the first time, or having our attention fall on something that had been there all along.
"Metaphor transports the mind—it is verbal. Symbolism conceals a meaning—it is nominal. Metaphor may introduce something fundamentally “new” into the old or make something new strangely familiar. Symbolism depends on a pre-established meaning; metaphor compels the mind to generate new meaning." Might a metaphor be(come) symbolic? FYI- by the way, see Metaphors We Live By and their massive Philosophy in The Flesh by Lakoff and Johnson. About every paragraph you write merits commentary. Cheers! Peter
I have long thought that the best poets must have an intuition for Keats's truth and beauty. I like to think I can "feel" when a word or phrase doesn't suit the poem. I seldom find myself questioning the best poets in their best poems. They had a sense of what I call "the rightness of words." One poem may create beauty with lovely visual images, another may intentionally jar with harsh sounds, another may drip with sarcasm. All paths to truth and beauty remain open to poets who can suit the words to the theme and style chosen for the poem in question.
My head is spinning after reading this. As a photographer and lover of nature, this makes me reconsider some of my long held beliefs regarding art and beauty I welcome that.I can show one of my pictures to 10 different people and get that many different reactions to it. Different people notice odd things about any picture that they like, and for different reasons. All very complicated from an artists perspective.
Thank you for sharing this. You have given me a lot of think about. I’ve thought about much of what you’ve written before but have lost the plot over the years. Now it’s time to recuperate and recalibrate.
What is your opinion of David Lynch? If you have seen any of his movies? (Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, the Twin Peaks TV series and film, and Lost Highway?) Lynch deals with a lot of ugliness and gore in his films but places them into a certain context and then contrasts this by raising the supposed "banality of Americana" up to a place of beauty by making a 50's Diner into a magical place were love can be found. How would you view Lynch through the lens of what is said here? I'd be curious to get your take? I say this because Lynch is considered very Modernist or even Postmodernist. He also plays with our conception of time and, unlike a Marvel movie, one comes out of a Lynch movie often with more questions than answers, leaving people to ponder and wonder and discuss. There is a scene in Twin Peaks where a young macho asshole kills a child in a hit and run. But then the townsfolk come out to watch in horror, gaping mouths open, and time seems to stop. Sad music plays. Then, the camera pans up to the sky where a faint impression of light soars upward: the child's soul leaving his body. In this way, Lynch raises the ordinary and commonplace tragedy that would be nothing more than a nightly news statistic into the spectacle of a 911, to show how much that child's life mattered.
"Metaphor transports the mind—it is verbal. Symbolism conceals a meaning—it is nominal. Metaphor may introduce something fundamentally “new” into the old or make something new strangely familiar. Symbolism depends on a pre-established meaning; metaphor compels the mind to generate new meaning." Might a metaphor be(come) symbolic? FYI- by the way, see Metaphors We Live By and their massive Philosophy in The Flesh by Lakoff and Johnson. About every paragraph you write merits commentary. Cheers! Peter
I have long thought that the best poets must have an intuition for Keats's truth and beauty. I like to think I can "feel" when a word or phrase doesn't suit the poem. I seldom find myself questioning the best poets in their best poems. They had a sense of what I call "the rightness of words." One poem may create beauty with lovely visual images, another may intentionally jar with harsh sounds, another may drip with sarcasm. All paths to truth and beauty remain open to poets who can suit the words to the theme and style chosen for the poem in question.
My head is spinning after reading this. As a photographer and lover of nature, this makes me reconsider some of my long held beliefs regarding art and beauty I welcome that.I can show one of my pictures to 10 different people and get that many different reactions to it. Different people notice odd things about any picture that they like, and for different reasons. All very complicated from an artists perspective.
Thank you for sharing this. You have given me a lot of think about. I’ve thought about much of what you’ve written before but have lost the plot over the years. Now it’s time to recuperate and recalibrate.
What is your opinion of David Lynch? If you have seen any of his movies? (Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Mulholland Drive, the Twin Peaks TV series and film, and Lost Highway?) Lynch deals with a lot of ugliness and gore in his films but places them into a certain context and then contrasts this by raising the supposed "banality of Americana" up to a place of beauty by making a 50's Diner into a magical place were love can be found. How would you view Lynch through the lens of what is said here? I'd be curious to get your take? I say this because Lynch is considered very Modernist or even Postmodernist. He also plays with our conception of time and, unlike a Marvel movie, one comes out of a Lynch movie often with more questions than answers, leaving people to ponder and wonder and discuss. There is a scene in Twin Peaks where a young macho asshole kills a child in a hit and run. But then the townsfolk come out to watch in horror, gaping mouths open, and time seems to stop. Sad music plays. Then, the camera pans up to the sky where a faint impression of light soars upward: the child's soul leaving his body. In this way, Lynch raises the ordinary and commonplace tragedy that would be nothing more than a nightly news statistic into the spectacle of a 911, to show how much that child's life mattered.