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March 29, 2005
Intensity Monger... good band name
This is an excerpt from an essay about writing and writers, but I think it applies to artists of all sorts.
I suppose what most people associate with poetry is soul-searching and fiercely felt emotions. We expect the poet to be a monger of intensity, to pain for us, to reach into the campfire so that we can watch without burning ourselves. Because poets feel what we're afraid to feel, venture where we're reluctant to go, we learn from their journeys without taking the dramtic risks. . . . In promoting a fight of his, a boxer once said: "I'm in the hurt business." In a different way, artists are too.
And yet, through their eyes -- perhaps because they risk so much -- we discover breathtaking views of the human pageant. Borrowing the lens of an artist's sensibility, we see the world in a richer way -- more familiar than we thought, and stranger than we knew, a world laced with wonder. Sometimes we need to be taught how and where to week wonder, but it's always there, waiting, full of mystery and magic. I feel that much of my own duty as a writer is to open those doors of vision, shine light into those dark corners of existence, and search for the fountains of innocence.
-Diane Ackerman, Language at Play
Posted by Megan at March 29, 2005 08:45 PM
Comments
I hadn't read that yet. Actually, I wasn't planning to read it at all... or at least not until things have slowed down enough that I can operated for 50 hours on more than 9 hours of sleep. Now, I thinking it was too bad that I couldn't have been in class to "present" on it as scheduled.
Posted by: Laura at March 30, 2005 01:32 PM
He sounds like an Impressionist.
Impressionists intentionally shed light on the "dark corners" of society. We often think that their work is beautiful and innocent, but really, it is pointing out the irony of what one really finds when one learns of reality.
Good to hear from you Meg!
Posted by: Heather at March 31, 2005 02:29 PM