But Is It Art???

I love modern art. Do you? Discuss.

HEROES

The topic for today is Heroes. What is the difference between a Hero and a Role Model? Do you have a Hero? How would you respond to someone (like me) who thinks that the modern world is antagonistic toward the very idea of heroism?

Mad as a Hatter

"Part of being sane, is being a little bit crazy.”
--Janet Long

“You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.”
--Robin Williams

“'But I don’t want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can’t help that,' said the Cat. 'We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.'
'How do you know I’m mad?' said Alice.
'You must be,” said the Cat. 'or you wouldn’t have come here.'”
--Lewis Carroll

“A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free”
--Nikos Kazantzakis


All of the above quotations assume a certain amount of "madness" in life. Here's today's question: How do you define "sane" behavior?

Family Folklore

Tell an "exaggerated" story from your own family lore, a story that has grown and been embellished over time. It doesn't have to be long, just a paragraph or two--though you may write more if you wish.

Are You Fifth Business?

Fifth Business Definition: "Those roles which, being neither those of Hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were nonetheless essential to bring about the Recognition or the denouement, were called the Fifth Business in drama and opera companies organized according to the old style; the player who acted these parts was often referred to as Fifth Business."

If, as Shakespeare says, "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players...": Is it possible that some lives are of more importance and consequence than others? Is it possible that some roles in life are more essential than others? Do you see yourself playing a major role or a minor role in life? Discuss.


McCullough will get the ball rolling, and then the rest of you can pitch in.

Robert Exum on BNW

I don’t think that our society has become the Brave New World that Huxley predicted in any way. In Huxley’s BNW bodily health and immediate gratification are most important to society. The society works because people have been stripped of emotion and have no hardships in life. They do not have to worry about love, “disease, aggression, war, anxiety, suffering, guilt, envy, (or) grief.” (Leon Kass) Their lives are planned out before they are even decanted and they only have to make shallow, trivial decisions for themselves. According to Mustapha Mond, “The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can’t get. They’re well off; they’re safe; they’re never ill; they’re not afraid of death; they’re blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they’re plagued with no mothers or fathers; they’ve got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they’re so conditioned that they practically can’t help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything goes wrong, there’s soma.” (p.220) Of course, soma, the drug that fixes the one thing that they can be plagued by: emotion. On the other hand, there is our society. Although when we are young our parents try, like the government in BNW, to shield us from the negative emotions and the problems in the world, for the most part we do feel. And we feel strongly. Our whole lives are based on emotional attachments. Starting with our mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, then friends, and eventually a wife and a family of our own, we form relationships based around emotions. We are even emotionally connected to people we don’t know when we read a tragic story in the paper or see the news of a hurricane on TV. There are wars, disease, and most importantly sin. Our society also conditions. We teach our young to make good decisions and to do what is right, to want to succeed in life, to get a good education, a job, and a family. However when we grow up we are individuals. No matter what our parents have taught us we still make our own decisions. The people in the BNW are not free. They are conditioned in everything down to what they do for fun, what they buy, and what job they do. We are truly free. We have all the things that the BNW lacks. John the Savage in the BNW says “But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” (p.240) He claims the right to be unhappy along with the right to all the things that the BNW got rid of. I agree with John. I think that the people of the BNW are not human. Furthermore they are not even happy. One cannot know or feel happiness without having felt fear, sorrow, grief, and boredom. The people in this BNW do not have any emotions and are not human because of this. They do not think for themselves, have real relationships with others, or feel. There are hardly even any individuals. They are like maggots, faceless and mindless maggots. People in our society have hopes, dreams, choice, and ambition. Also our society is ever changing. We have no restrictions on technology or science. We are encouraged to think for ourselves and we have art, literature, history, and multiple religions. We are all individuals and act as individuals.
I do see one small similarity between our society today and theirs. This is the constant presence of technology. Even as I write this journal I am listening to music. When faced with nature, the vast emptiness of the sea and the night sky, and the solitariness Lenina has a strong urge to turn on the radio. Her conditioning causes her to actually be afraid of nature and of being alone. Sometimes we do use music and other things to distract ourselves but I do not think it is the same. I think that the music we listen encourages thought. It is full of emotion and imagery and pierces us. It is not mindless and designed to prevent us from thinking like the radio in the BNW. We still value alone time and are always fascinated and inspired by the greatness of nature. We stare at the clouds or the stars and allow our minds to drift. The other similarity is instant gratification. However, again there are differences. I think that our society’s value on instant gratification is more because we want to save time. In the BNW instant gratification keeps them from feeling the strong emotions that “lurks in that interval of time between desire and its consummation.” (p.44) We still have this time for so many things. We have self control and do not expect to have everything instantly. We must work for many things but once we can afford them it is nice to be instantly gratified. Our society is still made up of emotion filled individuals. We are very human and suffer, but we also feel so much more and strive to fulfill our own hopes and dreams and find our own purpose in life. We find what makes us truly happy and on the way we live. We are human and have all the good and bad things that come along with that.

Tyson J on Huston Smith

These are the paintings Smith refers to: Nostalgia for the Infinite (top) and Who Are We... (bottom)


From Huston Smith: Why Religion Matters
There is within us—in even the blithest, most lighthearted among us—a fundamental dis-ease. It acts like an unquenchable fire that renders the vast majority of us incapable in this life of ever coming to full peace. This desire lies in the marrow of our bones and the deep regions of our souls. All great literature, poetry, art, philosophy, psychology, and religion try to name and analyze this longing. We are seldom in direct touch with it, and indeed the modern world seems set on preventing us from getting in touch with it by covering it with an unending phantasmagoria of entertainment, obsessions, addictions, and distractions of every sort. The longing is there, built into us like a jack-in-the-box that presses for release. Two great paintings suggest this longing in their titles—Gauguin's Who Are We? Where Did We Come From? Where Are We Going? and de Chirico's Nostalgia for the Infinite… Whether we realize it or not, simply to be human is to long for release from mundane existence, with its confining walls of finitude and mortality.


Tyson writes:

All that Smith is saying is that there is, deep within every man’s heart, a deep longing and an aching hunger for the infinite, for something greater than “this mortal coil.” No matter the temporary pleasure we may gain from the myriad distractions of this world, we are never truly fulfilled in this life. Smith says that we all acknowledge, somewhere deep inside ourselves, that we were meant for something greater. By now you are probably aware of my general take on life, and won’t be surprised by my answer.
I couldn’t agree with Smith any more. He was not specific, but the longing he refers to is that pull we feel in the deep heart’s core, calling us back to our Creator. We were made for God by God, and since we can never be truly united with him in this life, we can never truly fulfill that longing we feel for Heaven and for Him. At least not in this life. Writing this, I can’t help but feel that I’ve come across shallowly or religiously. I can’t emphasize enough how much I truly believe this in every fiber of my being. This might because I recognized this ache in myself some time ago, and have come to grasp that I can never be truly filled until I am with Him.
Have you ever noticed the difference that real faith and security makes in some people? In certain people, sometimes in people that I don’t expect, you can see (I feel like an idiot saying this) a certain…brightness…about them. It’s certainly not a light that you can see, and it’s not a feeling. It’s indeed, not perceptible with any of the five senses, but it’s there. Certain people just radiate “blessed assurance,” and it affects them and their environment. They seem, even when they are sad or angry, somehow calmer and happier. It’s as if their spirits are always looking up to Heaven, and Heaven is shining back with light we can’t see. I might be the only person who thinks this, but I think that people whose faith is unshakeable have just a glimmer-the shadow of a shadow-of their crown of glory already on their heads.