Saturday, November 12, 2005

A Thought to Frame the Day

'The purpose of art is to delight us; certain men and women (no smarter than you or I) whose art can delight us have been given dispensation from going out and fetching water and carrying wood. It's no more elaborate than that.'
--David Mamet

6 Comments:

At 2:23 PM, Blogger Jeff Hess said...

Shalom John,

I have a different take on the purpose of Art/art. One of my favorite poets, Andre Codescu in his book "The Muse Is Always Half-Dressed In New Orleans" repeats the quote from Georges Braque that the purpose of Art is to disturb.

There is plenty in Nature to delight us without creating more. The disturbing, however, is too rare; and that is what makes us think.

B'shalom,

Jeff

 
At 5:55 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

Man, Jeff, have you hit a nerve with his name. He is simply one of the most wildly wonderful essayists working in the English language. His periodic essays on NPR are some of the best free-form flights of fancy I've ever heard, though always with a deeper point. And that wild accent sure doesn't hurt.

 
At 8:17 PM, Blogger Jill said...

All true, but did you read Deborah Soloman's interview with him just after Hurricane Katrina? Talk about sobering.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/magazine/11QUESTIONS.html?ex=1131944400&en=f502a23c459c9243&ei=5070

Btw, John, when I went into hiding to learn how to freelance, the first books I got out where Codrescu's.

 
At 8:20 PM, Blogger Jeff Hess said...

Shalom Jill and John,

After Hurricane Katrina hit I looked for two New Orleans voices to speak: Andre Codresu and Anne Rice. Both more than satisfied.

B'shalom,

Jeff

 
At 12:56 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

Jill, that's pretty wild that you used him as a textbook. Shows you have excellent taste. And thanks for that link. I'm awfully glad you came out of hiding. The results have been impressive, but I know the best is yet to come. I thought of you several times yesterday during Michael Ruhlman's spellbinding talk at CSU. You'll have to catch him talk sometime (better yet, I hope you've read at least one or two of his books). It's a master's-level course on how to do literary journalism.

 
At 5:02 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

Daniella darling, I don't believe I ever came across that documentary. But now I'll be sure to track it down. Thanks for adding your two bits to this impromptu Andrei Codrescu fan club. Wouldn't it be fun to try to lure him to town? I'll watch for his next book, and maybe we can wangle his publisher into adding a stop in Cleveland to his book tour.

 

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