[MD] Mountain View

[ian glendinning]

I like that Marsha,

As an aside, I'm re-reading T E Lawrence Seven Pillars of Wisdom at
the moment, and it is full of descriptions of the common traits and
differences of peoples in all those regions (except Libya) pre-dating
many of the national boundaries.

But you highlight the main point in that final sentence, one I often
rant myself.
"Too many people are still trapped by the idea of .... definition ..."

Ian

On 2/8/07, MarshaV <marshalz at charter.net> wrote:
>
> Greetings,
>
> A while back I was trying to explain that I thought interpreting the
> Social & Intellectual Levels was so confusing because we are immersed
> in them.  Here is a far better description of what I was trying to
> explain, but pertaining to art.
>
> "On the other hand, all attempts to discover the essential properties
> of art have been carried out through a search for common denominators
> within art itself.  However,when looking for the especially large
> patterns of a particular territory it is sometimes necessary to climb
> to heights much greater than the mountaintops in that
> territory.  Thus, for instance, if we seek to find the common
> denominator of Libya, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey, the
> intuitive reply is, "Trouble."  But if this region is viewed from a
> height of several dozen kilometers, it is easily seen that all these
> nations have a common coastline.
>
> Similarly, it is possible that the answer to the questions, "What is
> the common denominator of works of art?" is not so evident at the
> level of the works themselves; instead, we can discover it more
> easily if we look for it from a height that allows us to see art as a
> special case of a broader pattern that includes the other areas of
> culture.  Too many people are still trapped by the idea of the
> importance of the definition of art, ..."
>                             (Avital, 'ART versus NONART', p. 258)
>
>
> The last sentence seems very relevant.
>
> But this is just a reflection of my own confusion.
>
> m
>
>
>
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