Art, successful art especially popular art, is heavy on the emotional side. Judy Garland is sometimes credited with saying something to the point that selling emotion was her business. People willingly suspend their disbelief to experience emotion whether it is fear, love, politics or whatever. This usually involves conflict, the purpose of which is to stir up the emotions. But what if, tired of conflict, the emotion one would like to stir up is peaceful contemplation and reflection instead of car chases and explosions? Why is there an apparent lack of demand for the deeper more passive contemplative emotions? An armchair at the inn and Days Off by Henry Van Dyke are good candidates for this relaxing kind of book where most often the greatest concern is the weather and whether or not the characters, canoeing down a forest banked stream, will find food and shelter before dark. The novels of Hugh Walpole, the inspiration for W. Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale, qualify here since they are the most boring books a reader could ever hope to find. What a relaxing time is spent snoozing through Hugh's books where you learn absolutely nothing. As Jonathan Winters might have put it, you could learn more in a cave. What attracts many readers is a puzzle, wondering what is going to happen. It is here only a mystery novel can satisfy. If you want to learn a new language mystery novels are better than any existential abstract read. The who did it kind of book ranks almost as high as the how to do it book. At the top of the how to do it book heap is probably the how to cook it book which may be the best seller of them all. Nothing in life like returning to essentials at the end of a hard day.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
art of reading
Art, successful art especially popular art, is heavy on the emotional side. Judy Garland is sometimes credited with saying something to the point that selling emotion was her business. People willingly suspend their disbelief to experience emotion whether it is fear, love, politics or whatever. This usually involves conflict, the purpose of which is to stir up the emotions. But what if, tired of conflict, the emotion one would like to stir up is peaceful contemplation and reflection instead of car chases and explosions? Why is there an apparent lack of demand for the deeper more passive contemplative emotions? An armchair at the inn and Days Off by Henry Van Dyke are good candidates for this relaxing kind of book where most often the greatest concern is the weather and whether or not the characters, canoeing down a forest banked stream, will find food and shelter before dark. The novels of Hugh Walpole, the inspiration for W. Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale, qualify here since they are the most boring books a reader could ever hope to find. What a relaxing time is spent snoozing through Hugh's books where you learn absolutely nothing. As Jonathan Winters might have put it, you could learn more in a cave. What attracts many readers is a puzzle, wondering what is going to happen. It is here only a mystery novel can satisfy. If you want to learn a new language mystery novels are better than any existential abstract read. The who did it kind of book ranks almost as high as the how to do it book. At the top of the how to do it book heap is probably the how to cook it book which may be the best seller of them all. Nothing in life like returning to essentials at the end of a hard day.
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SAC Vet, BU grad.
- Spencer Corkum, Host and SiteMaster for the Sunset Strollers and the Quoteblokes.
- The man with an experience is never at the mercy of the man with a theory, even if it is his own. The Spirit deep within speaks only to each one of us and does not tell us anything about others, or what they are to think or do. We each speak the words we are told by our spirit which cannot be held back, by this our witness is revealed. Words are the fruit of whatever spirit they describe. Words are powerful, they reveal the spirit that drives them. Passersby are welcome to comment in the same spirit as the content posted on this blog.
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