Useless Literature

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Mo Yan, the new controversial Nobel Laureate for Literature from China, made some interesting comments about Literature and Education :

"In comparison to Science, Literature indeed has no practical use. Yet the greatest function of Literature is perhaps its lack of function. It is similar to Education. Grades, academic qualifications and even knowledge itself are not the essence of Education. 

The essence of Education is this : a tree sways and touches another, a cloud moves and shifts another, a soul wakes from slumber and awakens another."

莫言在颁奖晚宴上讲了一句意味深长的话：

"文学和科学相比，的确没什么用处，但文学最大的用处，也许就是它没有用处。教育也如此，所谓的分数、学历、甚至知识都不是教育的本质。

教育的本质是： 一棵树摇动另一棵树，一朵云推动另一朵云，一个灵魂唤醒另一个灵魂。"

Fluid Space

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Solitude or Community? To be alone or to be with people?

Some might argue that it is a matter of preference, depending on whether one is an introvert or an extrovert. Personally I think we need a bit of both in order to be healthy functioning beings - body, mind and soul.

Let's Help Artists Help Themselves

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood is promoting a new and exciting platform called Fanado for members of the global creative community to connect with their fans. Now fans can 'meet' their favourite writer, artist, performer or musician and get that autograph signed from anywhere in the world. 

The wonders of social media and technology. Such endless possibilities in the digital age.

Indiegogo Project for Fanado gains steam

Margaret Atwood launches Fanado

Deconstruction and Reconstruction

Deconstruction or "clearing the skeletons from your closet" as they say, is a painful process. Yet I think it leads to the road of authentic living and true happiness.

On some days, it seems easier to just shut the closet door and pretend that everything is fine. Anyway, who is to know?

To recognize the 'skeletons', acknowledge their presence and eventually deal with them ... that takes honesty and courage. The greatest enemy is ourselves.  
 

The courage to face yourself
 - that is the ultimate challenge in art and in life.
 ~  Ang Lee (Taiwanese filmmaker)

Stories

Everyone loves a good story. Stories have the ability to travel, illuminate, inspire and even heal. You cannot know the effect your story might have on others, how deeply it may touch them. 

A story is a medicine that greases and hoists the pulleys, 

shows us the way out, down, in and around, 

cuts for us fine wide doors in previously blank walls, 

doors which lead us to our own knowing.

~  Clarissa Pinkolah Estes

Novelist Amy Tan's honest sharing about her process of writing, a search for meaning, especially when bad things happen. 

Heaven and Earth

I have always been intrigued by people - how we can be so different and yet the same.

Here is something I read recently that explained the mindsets of 2 different groups. It is no wonder that if they happen to live in the same household, sparks will fly - for better or for worse.

... ... ...
Culture: Philosophy, Mythology, History, Literature, The Arts

"As a technological, economic and political animal, the Singaporean generally thinks, plans and acts with time spans measured in hours, days, months, years and sometimes decades - spans within a person's living experience.

On the other hand, historians discourse in millennia, philosophers probe eternity, and writers and artists juxtapose times past/present/ future.

In substance, technological, economic and political animals always deal with tangibles ... and often producing concrete, material things.

On the other hand, philosophers, writers and artists always deal in intangibles, often originating and initiating behaviours that are physically difficult to discern:  they are subjective, elusive, fantastic and sometimes even considered quite mad by their contemporaries (whose judgments as often overturned decades or centuries later)."

~   Essays and Speeches by Kuo Pao Kun, Volume 7 (2008)

Buying Art vs Making Art

I guess appreciating, buying and consuming art is a good starting point before you decide to get your hands dirty and plunge into the deep end of making art. It helps struggling fellow artists make a living, too.

But speaking from personal experience, making art is always the more enriching and fulfilling experience, even if the end result may not be of masterpiece standard.

Practice makes perfect, and it's good for the soul - or helps you find it.

... ... ...
"Our general perception of art as acquiring an object - buying a painting, owning a piano, affording a theatre ticket etc. - really has nothing to do with art. They do not give you that intense, prolonged exercise where your senses, mind and body are subjected to a grueling experience of holistic gymnastics.

The process of art sensitizes one's whole being. Buying an art object produces but a consuming sensation.

Art is 'down-up' and ' inside-out'.

... the source energy of the arts has always come from the people. And always will."

~   Essays and Speeches by Kuo Pao Kun, Volume 7 (2008)

Changing The World ... With Photos on the Wall

JR, an artist from Paris, talks about the power of art to heal communities and bring people together.