These, my thoughts immediately folling the reading of the first link and also with respect to #478
Hi Dave,
When I fist read your post and then proceded to follow the links I thought to myself,"Oh sh*t, I'm sorry I asked". But, as you did ask the question, and my curiosity asked for an answer, I felt dutifully committed to at least consider an answer with the aid of you links.
I find myself, after reading the text of the first link, at this moment struggling to hold back the deluge of thoughts, hoping I can get just a small fraction of them down in some sensible and meaningful structure. However it is pointless for me to even attempt to do so because it is like an avalanche. I am inundated with comments seemingly so overwhelming which in turn leads me to ask and explore even more like chancing upon a vast undiscovered plain strewn with gold nuggets. Curiously, I am more interested in defining the bounderies of the plain, then stopping to pick up even one nugget. And when at last I conclude that I have come to terms with some definition of the breadth of said plain, I look back and am immediately saddened to find that all of the nuggets have disappeared.
I find that this also is in some way the very essence of my own struggle to do that which I really like to do, creative writing, yet too often the following occurs:
Like the fuel and the flame
One stops to watch the other blaze
But when no more is found to burn
Slowly dark the light has turned.
(the last four lines of "Writer's Cramp"
Dave, I could chance an answer to the original question, yet I doubt it would be an answer matching your own.
Lastly, this thought comes to mind: When one views an art, whatever the medium, one will surely come away with an impression even if the impression is no impression at all. I seriously doubt the majority will ever really know what brought the fininshed product to fruition or the journey the creator traversed to turn it into something tangible. However, I would suggest that whatever impression one comes away with, be it that of the creator or one quite different, that it is not without merit and thus acceptable, for isn't that what art is all about even with regard to your own piece My Struggle with Rasselas.
Thanks for the mindtrip, Dave. It was great fun!!
Mike |
