Creative People

"Isn't it exasperating to be treated as a fool by people who do not suffer?" --George Sand

Holy shit is it exasperating! I love this blog.

There is a tendency to want to approve of and encourage all creative activity around us, and any expression of passionate struggle against the inertia of carrying out what is prescribed, to oppose this active force to the null of non-artistic activity that is daily life.

But, this is the wrong attitude. The way forward in art is of course through discrimination; the earlier in life this condition is understood, the better. (If you have no talent for it, drop out as soon as you're convinced.) So much of art produced around us in cities seems exciting or worthwhile because it differs essentially from the behaviors of work-a-day urbanites. 'Wow, you actually did this,' is the premise of our judgement, a congratulation more than a commendation.

The truth is that art refers to social life tangentially only. As a special case of free action in an unfree universe, it refers above all else to the reality of lived consciousness. In other words, to the history of great art.

(To the wind that blows from Paradise. --A beautiful image, heartbreaking. But what does the image mean, anyway? That is, what does it accomplish?)