Abstract: danger is palpable and the discovery of the new meaning may live in the ambush at the center of a primitive fire. --Cannibals and Christians Raymond Chandler said it best, I think: In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption. It may be pure tragedy ... and it may be pity and irony, and it may be the raucous laughter of the strong man. But down these mean streets a man must go who is neither tarnished nor afraid.... He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be a man of honor. story is this man's adventure in search of a hidden truth and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. If the mediating factor between Gesture and Reality is the Symbol, then the mediating factor between Values and Culture is Art. Provincetown Arts magazine explored that proposition in 1999 celebrating one hundred years of Provincetown as an art colony. In it the painter Hans Hofinann asked, What is an artist? He concluded: The life's work of an artist is 'the work of art.' ... It is the life's work of an artist that creates a new dimension of the spirit. On the role of the artist, Norman Mailer said: I think it is to be as disturbing, as adventurous, as penetrating, as his energy and coverage make possible. How poor to go to death with no more than the notes of good intention. It is the actions of men and not their sentiments which make history. best sentence I've ever written. In that same one-hundreth anniversary issue he said, I'm arguing ... that novelists ... occupy the same position that high priests used to have.... I believe it. I prefer the notion that God is doing the best that He or She can do.... best that can be done under the circumstances. Eager to lend God a hand he gave us a world where Remarks are large, they are grand, they roll off into the murk of the metaphysical storm. Still, there are quick clues to be sniffed and landmarks in the murk. He hyped us with grandiose imagery and just when we were ready to call him on his hyperbole he yanked the play away from us with genius self-deprecation hauling us through the metaphysical storm grinning all the way. But, of course, that wasn't all. Scarcely pausing, now that our critical fists were lowered, he counterpunched with a startling hypothesis or two punching holes through the murk. We were sandbagged on the primrose path of curiosity with a verbal timing that would do credit to Richard Pryor. LAYDEEZ AND GENTLEMEN: Step right up and witness a modern marvel Mailer the Magnificent CHEER! …
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-09-22
Language: en
Type: article
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