[MD] Art and Stories

[MarshaV]

Hi Steve,

To make a slight alteration:  For me, truth is a static pattern of value which is relative. 

Marsha 
 
 



On Jun 3, 2010, at 3:11 AM, MarshaV wrote:

> 
> 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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> 
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