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"The trouble is..."
17 years ago
"...That we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain...But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy."
- Ursula K. LeGuin "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"
Not a problem we have societally, of course, and I for one would suggest that the struggle to find joy makes the joy more wondrous.
But still, something to think about.
Next time you have the urge to draw your character wallowing in blood, consider drawing it with a tweeting bird instead. ;)
Not directed at anyone in particular, but rather at an ongoing trend that has existed for centuries, in others' art as well as our own.
- Ursula K. LeGuin "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"
Not a problem we have societally, of course, and I for one would suggest that the struggle to find joy makes the joy more wondrous.
But still, something to think about.
Next time you have the urge to draw your character wallowing in blood, consider drawing it with a tweeting bird instead. ;)
Not directed at anyone in particular, but rather at an ongoing trend that has existed for centuries, in others' art as well as our own.
Blandly happy is boring, but there are many forms of happy besides the 'standing there vapidly' one! It's fun to see them!
I couldn't agree with you more.
Some people run laps when they're angry; others draw to vent. Then some people run laps to run laps, or because it makes them feel good; and others draw because they can draw, or because it makes them feel good.
The forms of catharsis are legion.
I don't see that LeGuin's point had to do with denying the positive. I believe it had more to do with people who knew that their happiness was dependent upon the suffering of others...and accepted it...Versus those who would walk away from paradise if they knew that their paradise was built on someone else's suffering.
The title is not, after all, 'The Ones Who Stay In Omelas'.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/1725568/
Besides, if art imitates life, and life is filled with events that we must determine as good or bad, should art be any different?
This piece really was mostly a response to a 2-3 day string where most of what I was seeing on FA was angst, damnation, and evil, and just not a lot of fun. (I.E., it wasn't even FUN angst, damnation and evil! c_c)
Your last line is utterly correct and shares my point. I wasn't counseling people to ONLY draw happy things (I am, after all, the guy who back in the late 80s/early 90s was referred to as the Clive Barker of the Furry Fandom due to various Revar images). Rather, I was seeing people ONLY drawing darkness and suggesting that they do something else once in a while. Note that I say 'Next time.' Not 'stop doing this altogether...'
The quote describes a fictional world where ONLY darkness seems to be contemplated...Not our own.