"Everywhere you go, there you are." And here I stay, still feeling behind the eight ball sans magic or fortune telling.
I am yet again re-reading books in an effort to clarify my position, what I think I see in these books. This prevents me from actually formulating these opinions and formalizing them into some sort of order, or to put it more simply, to write about them.
I had to create a personal poetics statement yesterday for another class, while this was an enjoyable exercise, fun to write and present, I was left feeling, what now? Is there actually a unique position left? or is insight simply now a function of individuality?
In this statement I traced influences from the age of four or so up to how these years affected my present sensibility. One I put down one writer, there was another I didn't. I become consumed with a anxiety of influence debate in my own head. It went something like this. "Oh I can mention her, or I can mention him, or her, or him ... you get the picture. But also, I cannot ignore growing up in the early days of broadcast television and am subject to the sitcom mind or the variety hour, or vaudeville. How does these influences differ-- or do they. I think not. The great value it seems to have grown up in waves of popular culture which have virtually erased the lines between Hight and Low culture. Is this lamentable, as Eliot or others may have believed? Or is it just the movement of history. With our increased ability to record our history, the different tools, media and so on, have we altered this delicate balance? Just too many questions.
I have taken a break to get a late breakfast and have no idea what I have been talking about. There is to my thinking great liberty, to be had by bringing together the high and the low. This is not new, we just have more options to manipulate information and images. I don't lament this as some may. With each new option, something old gives way. But we continue.
One of the leaders of the 1917 Arab rebellion, Auda abu Tayi (played by Anthony Quinn in the film) said, and I paraphrase "With each generation, mankind moves farther and farther away from his childhood." And with each generation, there is always opportunity, at least that's the idea.