From: dan
Date: 7-29-05
"I forwarded the email titled The Boat Hunter to a friend who converted it into email text so that I could read it. After giving it some thought, and considering the Fwds that you sent today, here are some thoughts:
The internet makes it possible to simulate communication quickly, and perhaps that fills a need to communicate which, for some, is not superficiality....it has the potential (as all forms of communication do) of being time-filling chatter. In any event, I cannot imagine why you forwarded me 3 emails concerning an unsuccessful attempt to communicate with a politician. Its hard to know how to respond to the flood of emails which I'm guessing must have some meaning to you, but which are incomprehensible to me.
One reaction is to ignore and delete everything that you send without reading it. So far I have read everything (except document files) Here's my assessment: your writing would benefit from an editor.
You utilize alot of terms that I simply don't understand....no problem if your main objective is to satisfy yourself by writing, but if you truly want to communicate with another living person the first step is to make sure that what you are saying can be understood. Often, at least for me, that means slowing down and understanding what you really way to say, or ask, rather than just pouring out a stream of words because you want to say something, anything, just as long as there's an endless stream of dialogue...the aim is continuity, I think, and its usually because the being who is endlesslly talking is afraid of acknowledging the power of silence, the presence of nothingness, and the knife of discontinuity. Perhaps its a simple fear of acknowledging mortality. I am not putting on the mask of a teacher or a healer. I'm an artist. This paragraph certainly falls in that regard...the best way to articulate the power of silence is to practice it.
What disconcerts me about your emails is that they ignore response...there are endless declarations of love, but never a question as to whether the being you are addressing wants love. I think the operative idea is that "everyone wants love"....a generality that handily evades the fact that humans are very specific about who and what they love....and that the word love is often a gloss for "what I want." Language can be mistaken for truth...or perhaps our understanding of what we perceive is shaped and limited by our languages. Science and society are quick to claim that we are all the same....and so we all share the same needs. Maybe. But to return this to the concrete....one declaration of love is enough for me. I'm glad my work is evocative to you. I've invested my entire life energy in becoming a part of that web of meaning...again, I'm wary of the language, but maybe you could say that I have sacrificed myself to that cause. Whatever. Its a beautiful life and I enjoy it deeply. I do not ask for anything more...not because of an imposed limit, but because my time is this, being an artist.
My sense is that you have been criticized alot, by the boorish people that you have (by circumstance or choise) associated with, and that you have never experienced acceptance by your peers (perhaps because you have yet to come in contact with them)....I think...and this is just my take....that you are limiting and inhibiting your possibilities by your overspiced language. My guess is that when you come in contact with a person that you have a genuine interest in, you immediately begin what is experienced as an overwhelming chaos of purging or a flood of random information. That's fine if your only intent is to purge and flood for your own purpose....but the unique beings of this world (and they are not only humans)...are repelled by the lack of articulation (care and restraint). What is attracted by an inarticulate flood? One word: Predators. Beings marked by excess are easy prey. Artists articulate this by flaunting the process...by attracting the monster. by being destroyed by it and returning "to life" In some societies (the ones I know of are tribal) this is recognized as a life sustaining gift brought thru the suffering of an adept spirit, for some reason....( and it could be an invisible "biological" quality) they are "chosen".
But an artist should know, and I do, that this life may bring utter self-destruction, even, and most likely, without recognition....and that it certainly makes "love" problematic at best. So be it.
The Boar Hunter message has "Gabriela" on it...I'm guessing from the song lyrics to The Gift. Gabriela is an artist friend from Iceland. The song is about our collaboration during her recent visit. It occured to me that you might enjoy joining a writers group and sharing some of your writing with others who are working on the craft of writing."
Date: 7-29-05
"I forwarded the email titled The Boat Hunter to a friend who converted it into email text so that I could read it. After giving it some thought, and considering the Fwds that you sent today, here are some thoughts:
The internet makes it possible to simulate communication quickly, and perhaps that fills a need to communicate which, for some, is not superficiality....it has the potential (as all forms of communication do) of being time-filling chatter. In any event, I cannot imagine why you forwarded me 3 emails concerning an unsuccessful attempt to communicate with a politician. Its hard to know how to respond to the flood of emails which I'm guessing must have some meaning to you, but which are incomprehensible to me.
One reaction is to ignore and delete everything that you send without reading it. So far I have read everything (except document files) Here's my assessment: your writing would benefit from an editor.
You utilize alot of terms that I simply don't understand....no problem if your main objective is to satisfy yourself by writing, but if you truly want to communicate with another living person the first step is to make sure that what you are saying can be understood. Often, at least for me, that means slowing down and understanding what you really way to say, or ask, rather than just pouring out a stream of words because you want to say something, anything, just as long as there's an endless stream of dialogue...the aim is continuity, I think, and its usually because the being who is endlesslly talking is afraid of acknowledging the power of silence, the presence of nothingness, and the knife of discontinuity. Perhaps its a simple fear of acknowledging mortality. I am not putting on the mask of a teacher or a healer. I'm an artist. This paragraph certainly falls in that regard...the best way to articulate the power of silence is to practice it.
What disconcerts me about your emails is that they ignore response...there are endless declarations of love, but never a question as to whether the being you are addressing wants love. I think the operative idea is that "everyone wants love"....a generality that handily evades the fact that humans are very specific about who and what they love....and that the word love is often a gloss for "what I want." Language can be mistaken for truth...or perhaps our understanding of what we perceive is shaped and limited by our languages. Science and society are quick to claim that we are all the same....and so we all share the same needs. Maybe. But to return this to the concrete....one declaration of love is enough for me. I'm glad my work is evocative to you. I've invested my entire life energy in becoming a part of that web of meaning...again, I'm wary of the language, but maybe you could say that I have sacrificed myself to that cause. Whatever. Its a beautiful life and I enjoy it deeply. I do not ask for anything more...not because of an imposed limit, but because my time is this, being an artist.
My sense is that you have been criticized alot, by the boorish people that you have (by circumstance or choise) associated with, and that you have never experienced acceptance by your peers (perhaps because you have yet to come in contact with them)....I think...and this is just my take....that you are limiting and inhibiting your possibilities by your overspiced language. My guess is that when you come in contact with a person that you have a genuine interest in, you immediately begin what is experienced as an overwhelming chaos of purging or a flood of random information. That's fine if your only intent is to purge and flood for your own purpose....but the unique beings of this world (and they are not only humans)...are repelled by the lack of articulation (care and restraint). What is attracted by an inarticulate flood? One word: Predators. Beings marked by excess are easy prey. Artists articulate this by flaunting the process...by attracting the monster. by being destroyed by it and returning "to life" In some societies (the ones I know of are tribal) this is recognized as a life sustaining gift brought thru the suffering of an adept spirit, for some reason....( and it could be an invisible "biological" quality) they are "chosen".
But an artist should know, and I do, that this life may bring utter self-destruction, even, and most likely, without recognition....and that it certainly makes "love" problematic at best. So be it.
The Boar Hunter message has "Gabriela" on it...I'm guessing from the song lyrics to The Gift. Gabriela is an artist friend from Iceland. The song is about our collaboration during her recent visit. It occured to me that you might enjoy joining a writers group and sharing some of your writing with others who are working on the craft of writing."
No comments:
Post a Comment