She said, "Borges was an amazing writer. While very politically active with strong views on a variety of subjects, he was able to separate himself from his political views and ideals in order to write stories that were pure art- no agenda."
Wait a minute...
Can you separate yourself from your ideals and your passions in order to create "art"? Is art ever "unbiased" and completely untainted by the views of the artist? Is it possible to create art without conviction?
No.
Art cannot be created in a vacuum. Were you to remove passion, conviction, and even one's own political views, one would not be able to create. These things are your character. They support you and your existence. They are you.
I wandered further down this mental rabbit trail. (English is a rather long, dry class...) I believe that too many of us do separate ourselves from something that is crucially part of us. (Or perhaps something that should be crucially part of us...) We separate ourselves from God.
Don't gasp and look indignantly at your screen. You know it's true.
There is the God of the universe. Who saved you. Who loves you. Who died for you. Who lives for you. The God who listens to every prayer you cry and every thought you think. The God who feels your pain and plans your days.
Yet we, for the most part, cut Him out of our life, out of our gifts, out of our "art" more effortlessly than we cut out our political agendas and thoughts. Why are we so quick to forget the God of the universe, so quick to destroy His influence on our actions, plans, and thoughts, while we tenaciously hold to our self-constructed ideals?
Why doesn't God permeate every aspects of our lives the same way our stubborn, man-made convictions do?
How is it that we have trouble removing our agendas, but we never struggle to remove our God?
Why is He disconnected from daily pursuits and passions?
Why do we so easily cut out God?
1 comment:
I was thinking about some of that the other day. (Not the God thing so much, but the art-for-art's-sake thing. It came up talking to my creative writing TA.) It sounds mildly circular. Like hitting yourself for the sake of hitting yourself, or having a skill for the sake of having a skill. It's like having a means for the sake of having a means, not for the sake of an end. The only things worth having for the sake of themselves are things that are inherently good in and of themselves (worthwhile ends), and in that category there is only one thing, God. The only good art (literature, etc.) is art for the sake of God and the Gospel.
Just my two cents. Pretend it was an epiphany so I can feel good about it.
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