young orthodoxies
wishy@nettaxi.com
Sun, 19 Jul 1998 14:15:01 +0000 (GMT)
>Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 19:40:59 +0000
>From: Scottie Bowman <bowman@mail.indigo.ie>
>To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
>Subject: young orthodoxies
Ah, look.
My first posting to you bananesque peoples. . .
> `... that knows to value what young people do. And on this list=20
> and in Salinger's writing, if we don't learn to value the insights=20
> and experiences of youth, we may be wasting our time..'
>
> I'm sure that PLAY is an essential component of all artistic=20
> endeavour. And that when Goethe suggested that artists were=20
> people who, among other things, managed to perpetuate childhood,=20
> or at least adolescence, into adult life it was another way of=20
> saying the same thing. =20
Perhaps the -most pleasing- things I've ever done have been while
`playing around'. Be it fiction, music, graphic, or just opening my
mouth and letting something spill out. The unexpected (where did
-that- spring from) has happened so often across the years (though
less so as I've become aware) that I've managed to convince myself
that trying too hard, or whittling texts, or over-thinking, kills the
purity of an idea. =20
The dilemma, of course, is that it isn't possible to try not to try.
And, conversely, this mode of working (if you can somehow integrate it
into a method) threatens also to produce a truck load of unpolished
tripe.
I sometimes think that Salinger and (perhaps bizarrely) Pirsig killed
me.
> Yet - though I realise I'll win no popularity contest for saying so=20
> - young people themselves are surprisingly unoriginal. In youth,=20
> we tend to be terribly conventional in our thinking. It may have=20
> the spurious look of rebellion & defiance to our elders but it=20
> usually stays well within the confines of the current peer group=20
> fashion.
I'd agree with that to some extent. A look at ng postings or a
conversation with a group of -average- teens can tend to shatter my
faith that the burgeoning teenager has the potential to really soar.
My disappointment, though, is tempered by my feeling (which I've yet
to have demonstrated otherwise) that the majority of an artist's best
output comes somewhat nearer the beginning of a career than the end.