tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post4489306909805422970..comments2023-05-27T08:37:06.936-07:00Comments on No Longer Reading: Seeing the old in a new wayNo Longer Readinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12716199759491512542noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-16228619782244267632021-03-05T07:28:06.591-08:002021-03-05T07:28:06.591-08:00Unknown, thanks for your interesting comments. I ...Unknown, thanks for your interesting comments. I especially liked what you had to say about coppice farming of trees, which I had never heard about before.No Longer Readinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716199759491512542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-33598472915982104812021-03-03T08:54:28.619-08:002021-03-03T08:54:28.619-08:00Here's another though related to Newton's ...Here's another though related to Newton's geometry investigations. The irrational numbers such as the golden section, route 2 and route 3 are divisions of rectangles. They can be infinitesimally calculated to divide a rectangle into different smaller dynamic rectangles. <br />I see this repetition as a way of forming patterns, and patterns as the primary way art and religion work to lead us out of our left brain analysis and into right-brain where what we know feels ineffable. Everybody seems to be getting to this in different ways, including Iain Mcgilcrist in the Master and his Emissary. The right hemisphere is heavily involved in imitation, and to me imitation is seeing a pattern and conforming yourself to it. <br />Dynamic rectangles give you a way of developing an invisible pattern in your painting but hiding it or even receding the pattern into the depth or z-space of the painting. <br />Modernism is suspicious about patterns for good reason. Rene Girard pointed out the place of imitation in prompting us all to envy each other, and then pointing us at finding a scapegoat who we can all ritually sacrifice in order to stop wanting each other's stuff for a while. The most obvious way this goes wrong is Hitler, but we now see it operate in plain sight on social media. <br />Eric The Moorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17964456278155564192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-73606130785867951972021-03-03T08:43:12.807-08:002021-03-03T08:43:12.807-08:00The Constable painting equates full grown trees wi...The Constable painting equates full grown trees with the spires of the cathedral. I recently read the book Sprout Lands, by arborist William Bryant Logan (you can find a good podcast interview of him on the John Batchelor show). The book is basically about coppice farming of trees. Logan travels the world to discover different cultures and their approach to trees and the way stone-age humans evolved to work with them, generally by cutting them back and using the sprouts, or by pollarding them and harvesting the sprouts to feed to their animals. The resulting landscape of coppices in various stages of regrowth was much more varied, much friendlier to wildlife and resulted in trees which lived a lot longer than the trees we see today. In fact the trees had evolved to survive this way as they were food for browsers like mastodons.<br />I see Constable's painting as well into the Romantic tradition of wondering where our place is in the world when even majestic trees topple over in the wind and die. By his time, the commons had been enclosed and trees were primarily seen either as boards-to-be or romanticized as gods. <br />Eric The Moorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17964456278155564192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-62344042782932583552021-02-25T14:33:53.248-08:002021-02-25T14:33:53.248-08:00Good comment. The only one of Newman's works ...Good comment. The only one of Newman's works that I have read is "Dream of Gerontius," but I find him a sympathetic figure. No Longer Readinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716199759491512542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-79307115636355392552021-02-25T14:30:50.610-08:002021-02-25T14:30:50.610-08:00ThanksThanksNo Longer Readinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716199759491512542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-39595422091369941442021-02-25T10:48:10.797-08:002021-02-25T10:48:10.797-08:00I feel this blog is important and very helpful.I feel this blog is important and very helpful.Kirstiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16450082231086667424noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-6713866005750368462021-02-24T13:24:43.641-08:002021-02-24T13:24:43.641-08:00ThanksThanksNo Longer Readinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716199759491512542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-81866346473821533692021-02-24T13:24:27.151-08:002021-02-24T13:24:27.151-08:00Great comment. Yes, what you say makes sense.
...Great comment. Yes, what you say makes sense. <br /><br />I like your metaphor about us being in a stagnant backwater. As you point out, art as it is now can't be considered a development as much as a form of going off the rails. <br /><br />"Once we get into the twentieth century, the signs of degeneration are everywhere. Unwilling to make something new from the creativity of the past, art begins to deconstruct and destroy itself under the imperative to be original at all costs and "make it new" (sorry, Ezra Pound). Everything begins to splinter and roll back upon itself - art becomes a destructive feedback loop. The great is considered mundane; the mundane, great. After a while, the kaleidoscopic revelry ends and everything just stagnates."<br /><br />good insightNo Longer Readinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716199759491512542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-53467034642362522382021-02-23T16:45:33.340-08:002021-02-23T16:45:33.340-08:00I completely agree. Liberalism failed because it ...I completely agree. Liberalism failed because it completely disregarded the past as superstitious nonsense and attempted to create a "new man" without the Holy Spirit. Modern man wants to run before he learns to walk.Lady Mermaidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11155346529897215149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-13303730382469934452021-02-23T16:41:30.864-08:002021-02-23T16:41:30.864-08:00This is wonderful post in light of Bruce Charlton&...This is wonderful post in light of Bruce Charlton's recent entry about the impossibility of completely returning to the past. I especially love the last post comparing development to an acorn growing into a tree. I believe that St. John Henry Newman coined a similar term "development of doctrine". His Anglicanism left a mark on Catholicism showing a progression of his faith.Lady Mermaidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11155346529897215149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-48980592941396266592021-02-23T14:07:43.442-08:002021-02-23T14:07:43.442-08:00Yes, outstanding. Yes, outstanding. Paul Vander Klayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06223428897906325654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-64090885734678296112021-02-23T06:54:51.081-08:002021-02-23T06:54:51.081-08:00Sorry about that. I was asleep so I hadn't ap...Sorry about that. I was asleep so I hadn't approved your response yet.No Longer Readinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716199759491512542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-58231123611951738222021-02-23T06:23:10.238-08:002021-02-23T06:23:10.238-08:00First of all, excellent stuff!
What you have out...First of all, excellent stuff! <br /><br />What you have outlined here makes a great deal of sense to me. Your example of the shift from realism to impressionism in painting - great choices to illustrate this, by the way - demonstrates that the impressionists were not only aware of what had come before them (or continued to exist alongside them), but understood and respected it. They understood and respected it because they had "gone through" it. In this sense, their impulse to move beyond realism was positive and creative because it did not seek to obliterate or destroy; nor did it aim to mock or denigrate. Instead, the impulse sought to add a new dimension to the medium. Your examples of novels traces these developments as well. <br /><br />I like the digression into the realist depictions of mythical figures; I hadn't thought deeply about that before at all. <br /><br />Your observations about the limits impressionism mirror my own thoughts about the subject, but I would apply this to all art, generally speaking. Once we get into the twentieth century, the signs of degeneration are everywhere. Unwilling to make something new from the creativity of the past, art begins to deconstruct and destroy itself under the imperative to be original at all costs and "make it new" (sorry, Ezra Pound). Everything begins to splinter and roll back upon itself - art becomes a destructive feedback loop. The great is considered mundane; the mundane, great. After a while, the kaleidoscopic revelry ends and everything just stagnates. <br /><br />And this stagnation is still with us today. University students and artists embrace the idea of scoffing at the past, or take delight in denigrating all past forms and poisoning them with superimposed social ideas and "critical" theories. <br /><br />Artists (and people in general) of the past understood that they had to master tradition to some degree before they could innovate or create anything original themselves. Moderns seem to think otherwise. Contemporary writers want to be greater than Shakespeare without having to read Shakespeare.<br /><br />In terms of consciousness, I would say the way forward must involve a thorough understanding and appreciation or, at the very least, a sincere awareness (consciousness) of the past. Without it, there doesn't seem to be much of a way forward. Consciousness is caught in a stagnant, meaningless backwater when it needs to find its way back to the great river (where old and new water both flow in the same direction).<br /><br />Now it's my turn to ask you - does that make sense? Francis Bergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11063224017320651978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-67287203129803763002021-02-23T02:01:57.323-08:002021-02-23T02:01:57.323-08:00Two 'replies' lost - wonder whether this w...Two 'replies' lost - wonder whether this will work...Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-36685376027721256472021-02-23T02:00:50.833-08:002021-02-23T02:00:50.833-08:00I agree about surrealism - indeed, I regard it as ...I agree about surrealism - indeed, I regard it as an example of fake creativity. i.e. Its creativity does not originate from the true (divine) self, but takes already-created ideas and re-combines, extrapolates, inverts them etc; much as advertisers do. Eventually, the explanation of the art makes the work itself superfluous (as will the varieties of conceptual art, that pretty much dominated the galleries last I looked) - Tom Wolfe termed it The Painted Word (but 'it' could equally be sculpted, collaged or whatever). Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-25225379520200146892021-02-23T01:56:34.180-08:002021-02-23T01:56:34.180-08:00"does what I am trying to write about here at..."does what I am trying to write about here at least make sense?"<br /><br />Certainly, to me it does. I was trying to amplify the argument (in some lost fashion!)Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-62641537605066254792021-02-22T16:40:31.265-08:002021-02-22T16:40:31.265-08:00Also, here is something else about art that I did ...Also, here is something else about art that I did not put into the post because it didn't fit with the main theme: <br /><br />I think the way that began with impressionism went about as far as it could go with Van Gogh. After that, artists would have had to find another path. Van Gogh died in 1890 and (as you have written) it seems like the 1890s were a special time where the world could have gone in a completely different direction. <br />As it is, painting degenerated. So did other art. Chesterton saw that up close in art school and spent the rest of his life fighting against those impulses.<br /><br />Surrealism is an important bad example. That is what happens when artists misuse imagination. Imagination is used to force something upon the world, often ugly or arbitrary, rather than trying to cooperate with Creation.<br /><br />The strange thing is that, it may be that because of the impulse towards originality in the consciousness of artists, art couldn't stay stable as it could have in a previous age. So, it had to become either better or worse. <br />No Longer Readinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716199759491512542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-42983956713226186772021-02-22T09:31:32.989-08:002021-02-22T09:31:32.989-08:00This lost comment business is very weird. I wonde...This lost comment business is very weird. I wonder if changing from embedded to full page, as Otto suggested would help. I'm going to hold off for a while because it will make previous comment threads would become disjointed. But I'll try that if it becomes too bad.<br /><br />On the topic of the post, does what I am trying to write about here at least make sense?No Longer Readinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12716199759491512542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8143976828657199217.post-10663536717775130442021-02-22T08:54:11.336-08:002021-02-22T08:54:11.336-08:00FYI - My previous comment got lost... FYI - My previous comment got lost... Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.com