A comment from E to Wednesday's post:
"I think the audience's role in writing vs. music/art most obviously separates the mediums.
My dad once called reading the "act of re-creating", implying a tacitly shared creative endeavor between author and audience. meanwhile, with music and art the sensory gratification for a listener/viewer is immediate and effortless. The opportunity for collaboration certainly exists, but a dialogue between creator and recipient can occur without it.
Writing will require some sort of an investment from its audience; music and art don't have to."
Agree? Is that an reasonable distinction?
While writers can only guess how their audience will respond, in the performing arts the creators get immediate response and in some cases may even alter their performance based on that response. Could it be said, then, that the audience shares in the creation of that performance?
Writers are notoriously reclusive. Is there a connection between their chosen vocation and their social anxiety? Do agoraphobics choose to write as a less painful means to connect with others?
A fellow asked an author whom she would invite to her fantasy dinner party.
She replied, "Jane Austen, Adolf Hitler, John the Baptist and Chris Farley."
"Why?" he asked. "What do those four have in common?"
"They're all dead," she said. "So I won't have to think of something to say."
Question: (Thank you, Dwight Shrute)
Whom would you invite to your fantasy dinner party, and why?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I know this is too snobby, but the error-- "mediums" rather than "media"-- actually renders this statement unreadable.
Although one must write to an audience if one wants financial success, don't we all write our stories, our poems and our music and create our works of art because of something inside us? My sister said she didn't have stories in her head and I was so shocked, I thought she was making it up. I mean, doesn't everyone? Apparently not. Another sister writes incredibly beautiful music because she can't help herself but the rest of us can only enjoy it. My siblings are artists but I can't draw a recognizable tree.
Even though my brother once said anyone could be taught to use the brain function needed to be an artist, I don't believe that. I believe that each of us was given a talent and it's up to us to discover, develop and define it to the best of our ability. I may want to be an opera singer, but unless I've been given the voice, I'll never make it. I could take art lessons for the rest of my life and I could probably paint some passable pictures, but the passion for art isn't inside me as it is for my brother, who was drawing from the time he could hold a pencil. He SEES the drawing before it's made just as I know the whole lives of my fictional characters before I start writing. Different people will interpret our creations in different ways, but the vision lies within.
Post a Comment