'The World Is What It Is'
02/06/08 22:30
I’ve always
been fascinated by the ethical dilemma facing great
artists. Does creating art mitigate against the sins
one might commit against those in one’s care?
Or do they leave an indelible mark? Solipsism is
almost a requirement if one is to write a great
novel, or compose a grand symphony. Does the praise
accorded artistic geniuses drown out the pleas of
wives and children, do we think? Or does it just make
one care less?
Anyway, I was thinking about the subject mainly as a result of review in this week’s TLS of a biography by Patrick French of the novelist and arch-solipsist VS Naipaul. The review concludes with a quotation from JA Froude’s Life of Carlyle which offers a redemptive opinion on the matter, and one with which I would like, but ultimately find impossible, to wholly concur:
“His faults which in his late remorse he exaggerated . . . were the effects of temperament . . . and of absorption in his work . . . . Such faults were but as the vapours which hang about a mountain, inseparable from the nature of the man. They have to be told, because without them his character cannot be understood . . . . But they do not blemish the essential greatness of his character”.
Anyway, I was thinking about the subject mainly as a result of review in this week’s TLS of a biography by Patrick French of the novelist and arch-solipsist VS Naipaul. The review concludes with a quotation from JA Froude’s Life of Carlyle which offers a redemptive opinion on the matter, and one with which I would like, but ultimately find impossible, to wholly concur:
“His faults which in his late remorse he exaggerated . . . were the effects of temperament . . . and of absorption in his work . . . . Such faults were but as the vapours which hang about a mountain, inseparable from the nature of the man. They have to be told, because without them his character cannot be understood . . . . But they do not blemish the essential greatness of his character”.
Your Debut Album
02/06/08 17:51
Via
Vitamin Briefcase:
1 - Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 - Go to Random quotations: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
If you want to do this again, you’ll hit refresh to generate new quotes, because clicking the quotes link again will just give you the same quotes over and over again.
3 - Go to flickr’s “explore the last seven days” http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
Put it all together, that’s your debut album.
My album:
Social Intelligence - ‘Our Doubts of Today’
1 - Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 - Go to Random quotations: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
If you want to do this again, you’ll hit refresh to generate new quotes, because clicking the quotes link again will just give you the same quotes over and over again.
3 - Go to flickr’s “explore the last seven days” http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
Put it all together, that’s your debut album.
My album:
Social Intelligence - ‘Our Doubts of Today’