[MD] Art and Stories

[MarshaV]

Hi Steve,

I don't know if listening is the same as reading, but I downloaded 
'Beatrice and Virgil' and listened to the first chapter, which of course 
contains your quote.   You know for me, truth is relative.  Fiction 
or non-fiction, it's all story to me.  That is not to demean the story,
quite the opposite, life is like a fantastic kaleidoscope of story-telling. 
I suppose I'm not the person to engage in an intelligent discussion
concerning what is real, fiction or true.   I enjoy hearing Martel 
questioning such assumptions, but they have already become 
water over the dam for me.    

Art has reflected my different stories over the years, whether making 
it or viewing it.  Sometimes expressing an internal burn, sometimes 
joy, sometimes a question, sometimes puzzlement at the anomalies: 
it is always a mirror.  I have worked with the book as an object of art,
poetry, intaglio printmaking, classical guitar, collage (my favorite) 
and painting.  Participating in art is to give yourself a huge, loving gift.  
And it is never too late to give that gift, either.    



Marsha 






On Jun 2, 2010, at 8:54 AM, Steven Peterson wrote:

> Hi Marsha, Ian, Matt, all
> 
> Marsha, are you gonna give the new one a try of Life of Pi? In Life of
> Pi (one of my all-time favorites), the narrator gives two difeerent
> accounts of the same events. The people he is telling the stories to
> want to know which story is true, but the first person narrator asks
> which story is the better story? The better story is clearly the one
> that doesn't ring nearly as true.
> 
> I quoted author Martel:
> 
> "Fiction and nonfiction are not so easily divided. Fiction may not be
> real, but it’s true; it goes beyond the garland of facts to get to
> emotional and psychological truths. As for nonfiction, for history, it
> may be real, but its truth is slippery, hard to access, with no fixed
> meaning bolted to it. If history doesn’t become story, it dies to
> everyone except the historian. Art is the suitcase of history,
> carrying the essentials. Art is the life buoy of history. Art is seed,
> art is memory, art is vaccine."“In addition to the knowledge of
> history...we need the understanding of art. Stories identify, unify,
> give meaning to. Just as music is noise that makes sense, a painting
> is colour that makes sense, so a story is life that makes sense."
> 
> Steve:
> What do you think about "not real, but true" applied to fiction?
> 
> This is the sort of thing I think Neil Gaiman would say, too (about
> stories)  I personally wouldn't use the words "true" or "real" for
> fiction since they sound to me like direct contradictions to the word
> fiction, but I really like the last bit about "making sense" as
> something distinct from truth and reality which applies as well to
> both fiction and nonfiction.
> 
> It makes me think about art in general. A lot of modern art just
> doesn't make any sense to me while some does make some sense to me,
> but it isn't an issue of true-false bivalence. "True" is the wrong
> word, but I like "makes sense." Some art gets dismissed as not making
> any sense (too dynamic or chaotic) or is mundane and doesn't *make*
> sense of anything that did not already make sense (too static). Some
> art keeps drawing you back to try to make sense and you keep finding
> new things in it and it never seems to exhaust the process of making
> new sense (some sweet spot of dynamic-static tension).
> 
> The new book has a lot of writing about writing which may interest Matt.
> 
> Best,
> Steve
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