So you're saying that people have already drawn all over that new world/blank canvas and the world has become a world of symbol (thanks to those who could listen to the "cold sound" from "the muck of the land" and manifest symbols from it) where everything is already supposed, already done, and our imaginations are undermined by this?
essentially, yes. we impose our idea of order onto a world which already has a natural order (nature) and also the order of other people who inhabit the world (culture). order though, is our imagination and not necessarily reason for wallace stevens argues "reason is the methodizing of the imagination." this is why i think ayn rand is aweomsely wrong, but that is another discussion.
but the imagination takes these raw materials, the world and culture, and attempts of make order from it. but we just don't learn and move on, we learn and we re-learn by defamiliarizing that which previously has existed. stevens in "notes toward a supreme fiction" muses that you look at the sun but it wasn't always called the sun it used to be called phoebus and he poses the notion that we must look at the sun as an idea but think of it as the thing itself which essentially does not have a designated name. and if this is posed, how can we begin to create the notion of God, which is arguably the ultimate idea? stevens attempts to answer that in that poem and gives the reader a guide to go by to attempt to figure this out.
(And I don't mean to attempt to hog the spotlight by constantly referring back to my own entries - I just want to tie this all together, because I really appreciate what you're saying here.)
haha, not at all; it was your entry on shadow of the colossus that was the catalyst and got me interested in the game and the idea of video games as a true art-form. the only game prior to shadow that had me think along similar lines was metal gear solid 2 where towards the end it goes into this post-structuralist dissertation about how history can be controlled by a small group of people behind the scenes. shadow embodies the ideas i mentioned much more though.
i really insist though that you read some of wallace stevens' work. his influence is very prevelant throughout this entry. i recommend the following poems:
farewell to florida the snow man tea at the palaz of hoon (this one and "the snow man" should be read as companion pieces) the ultimate poem is abstract final soliloquy of the interior paramour not ideas about the thing but the thing itself the emperor of ice cream how to live. what to do. angel surrounded by paysans world without peculiarity evening without angels thirteen ways of looking at a black bird
and of course, his most important poem - notes toward a supreme fiction.
also, his collection of essays, the necessary angel has a lot of great stuff in it also; especially imagination as value. i usually don't jump on intellectual bandwagons, but wallace stevens' work doesn't propose a specific idea of order but a bunch of ideas instead. that is why his work is so engaging and so applicable to our lives.
... metal gear solid 2 where towards the end it goes into this post-structuralist dissertation about how history can be controlled by a small group of people behind the scenes.
I've just printed out a bunch of Stevens's poems. I have a few things to get done this evening, but then I'll read those and get back to these comments and try to get into things a little bit more.
essentially, yes. we impose our idea of order onto a world which already has a natural order (nature) and also the order of other people who inhabit the world (culture). order though, is our imagination and not necessarily reason for wallace stevens argues "reason is the methodizing of the imagination." this is why i think ayn rand is aweomsely wrong, but that is another discussion.
but the imagination takes these raw materials, the world and culture, and attempts of make order from it. but we just don't learn and move on, we learn and we re-learn by defamiliarizing that which previously has existed. stevens in "notes toward a supreme fiction" muses that you look at the sun but it wasn't always called the sun it used to be called phoebus and he poses the notion that we must look at the sun as an idea but think of it as the thing itself which essentially does not have a designated name. and if this is posed, how can we begin to create the notion of God, which is arguably the ultimate idea? stevens attempts to answer that in that poem and gives the reader a guide to go by to attempt to figure this out.
(And I don't mean to attempt to hog the spotlight by constantly referring back to my own entries - I just want to tie this all together, because I really appreciate what you're saying here.)
haha, not at all; it was your entry on shadow of the colossus that was the catalyst and got me interested in the game and the idea of video games as a true art-form. the only game prior to shadow that had me think along similar lines was metal gear solid 2 where towards the end it goes into this post-structuralist dissertation about how history can be controlled by a small group of people behind the scenes. shadow embodies the ideas i mentioned much more though.
i really insist though that you read some of wallace stevens' work. his influence is very prevelant throughout this entry. i recommend the following poems:
farewell to florida
the snow man
tea at the palaz of hoon (this one and "the snow man" should be read as companion pieces)
the ultimate poem is abstract
final soliloquy of the interior paramour
not ideas about the thing but the thing itself
the emperor of ice cream
how to live. what to do.
angel surrounded by paysans
world without peculiarity
evening without angels
thirteen ways of looking at a black bird
and of course, his most important poem - notes toward a supreme fiction.
also, his collection of essays, the necessary angel has a lot of great stuff in it also; especially imagination as value. i usually don't jump on intellectual bandwagons, but wallace stevens' work doesn't propose a specific idea of order but a bunch of ideas instead. that is why his work is so engaging and so applicable to our lives.
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Yeah, right away that reminded me of this.
I've just printed out a bunch of Stevens's poems. I have a few things to get done this evening, but then I'll read those and get back to these comments and try to get into things a little bit more.
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