[MD] Art and Stories

[MarshaV]

Or truths are static patterns of value which are relative.   


On Jun 3, 2010, at 9:42 AM, MarshaV wrote:

> 
> 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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