Emotion and Art

Emotions are a curious thing. I spend a lot of time thinking about them and the way they affect me and the way they affect other people. I think that maybe I do this a little more than most people do, or maybe it's just that they affect me in different ways. I know that my imagination plays a very large role in this. It is one of the reasons I read as much as I do, it is the main reason I don't participate much in the genre of Horror, and I believe it is why I keep myself a bit more distant than most from society as a whole. I do not enjoy my emotions being toyed with and I have a hard time letting things go in the way that most people seem to be able to. Aside from all of this, I find emotion to be one of the most interesting things about people as a whole and I think it takes a special understanding of it to be a good writer or artist of any sort.

For instance, I find that the violin effects me in a way that most instruments do not. Listening to a skilled violinist can, and often does, evoke emotions in me that run the gamut from joyful to melancholy, nervous to relaxed, and anything in between. But how does someone do that with words? There are a million different ways to describe the slow pull of a bow across strings fingered in such a way that the tones, clean and sharp, hang in the air, permeating everything they touch and causing the world itself to vibrate in time while pulling like gravity on hearts and souls and stretching them to the point where they could, and probably would, break at any moment. Yet they don't, because just before that moment comes the bow lifts, the tone fades, and the listeners let go of the breath of air that up until this moment they didn't realize they were holding. There are infinite ways to say this, but each way subtly changes the perception on the other end.

This is what connects every form of art. It is, in my opinion, the reason for the existence of art. It is how we connect ourselves to everything else. A song, a word, a smell, a taste and countless other experiences great and small can instantly connect you to or remind you of other experiences, visions, or dreams. I think, however, that while some people perceive these connections only occasionally, others recognize them so frequently that it is almost a different form of breathing. I think that these people, the minority among the masses, are the ones that we call artists or mystics. I think they are the people who find the connections in unexpected places, who make the connections that others wouldn't, and who use the mediums that they feel the most affinity with to share those perceptions with anyone who will listen.

Art is an incredibly difficult thing to learn. It is very similar to, and sometimes the same as, trying to find God. There are millions of people willing, sometimes chomping at the bit, to tell you what they think the answer is or where the path lies, but none of them can actually tell you the right way. It's not that they are necessarily wrong, although I think that most people that will tell you they have the answer have really just stopped looking, its just that there are probably as many answers as there are people and probably as many paths as stars in the sky. Whatever Being you believe in, it is probably not one that can fit into a book, a box, a church, a world, or a galaxy. That's the beauty of the search. That's the beauty of art.

How interesting would life be if someone really did have all the answers, or even The Answer? Or even better, if someone did and was willing to tell it to you, would you believe them?

Again, With the Books

I didn't actually check but I think it's been awhile since I wrote about my books. There have been some recent developments that I'm very excited about and so I thought I'd share them with you all.

I am currently reading another Charles de Lint called "Spirits in the Wires". I like it but I will say that I don't think it's his best. It may just be me, though, because I don't really like to read first person narrative and there's a lot of it in this book. Maybe it's just because one of the main characters annoys me. But, aside from all of that, I still think it's very good. I love the way Charles' mind works, and I am very impressed with the little niche that he's created for himself. I just finished another of his books called "The Onion Girl" and I did like that one a lot. My one complaint about that one is that there's not enough Joe. In all honesty, if you read enough of Charles' books, I think you will eventually agree that there's never enough Joe. He intrigues me.

After I have finished this one, however, I think I am gonna have to take a break from Charles for awhile, even though I just ordered six more of his books. I am very excited about that. Did you know that if you go to the "Used and Out of Print" section of the B&N website you can get hardbacks, good as new, for two or three dollars? I got all six of those books for a total of 38 dollars and the shipping was three quarters of the cost. I find that this discovery is not good for my addiction. I don't think Mandi's very excited about it either.

I just had to go out and buy a new bookshelf to store my treasures. This one is the biggest one yet. In my defense it isn't full yet, but it is half way full and all of the books are ones that I either haven't read or haven't finished yet. Of the ones that I'm in the middle of, there are a few on Zen, one on Tao, "Still Life with Woodpecker", "The Monkey Wrench Gang", "Life of Pi", a Neal Stephenson book that I'll never finish, and a dozen others that I've gotten distracted from for various reasons. At some point I'll come back to them. It's all about being in the right mood.

There are authors that I need to get back to and ones that I know I want to read but haven't gotten to yet. There are books I've already read but that I want to buy because they were favorites when I was a kid. Speaking of which, did you know that the lady who wrote "A Wrinkle in Time" died a few weeks ago? I had forgotten about that book until I heard the report on NPR. I remember thinking it was a really good book and I can still see a couple of scenes in my mind, but I'd like to get that so I can remember what it was all about. I have started to use my niece as an excuse to go through the kids section of the bookstores. I never finished my collection of "The Boxcar Children". I loved those growing up. I'd also like to get a nice set of the Laura Ingalls-Wilder books. I liked those a lot too. I need a copy of "The Red Pony". I also need to get the rest of the books in "The Secret of the Indian" series. I'd also like to try to find a copy of "The Yearling" and see if I can get through it now. I never could when I was in elementary school but I tried a number of times. The list goes on and on.

I've never read the "Lonesome Dove" series, but I've always wanted too. Also, when I was younger, I used to read Louis L'Amour books from time to time. I remember liking those, but there are so damn many of them that I always talk myself out of getting back into them. The man was prolific, to say the least. If anyone knows of some good westerns by anyone other than McMurtry or L'Amour please let me know. I'll get to these two on my own though. For that matter, any book or author that anyone would like to suggest or trade for one of mine please let me know. I've been working very hard recently at loosening my iron grip on the books I've read and enjoyed. But just so you know in advance, there are some that I just can't loan out. Also, if you do decide you'd like to trade (not permanently of course) please understand that it could be a good long while before I read and return the book I borrow. I do however have a shelf reserved for the books that I've borrowed from other people so that I don't forget that they are not mine.

So that's the blog on books. I hope you enjoyed it, I certainly did. Writing about stuff like this always makes me think of Levar Burton. I miss that guy. Then I think about Star Trek: The Next Generation, and then I remember that the series comes out on DVD tomorrow! Woo Hoo!

Say it with me, don't be shy, you know you want to...

"These are the voyagers of the star ship Enterprise, whose mission is to boldly go where no man has gone before, to seek out new life and new civilizations....."

As always, thanks for reading.

P.S. I like a good sea adventure story every now and then if anyone has any book suggestions in that genre.