Yes. WC
--- On Mon, 2/23/09, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Definable and measurable truths > To: [email protected] > Date: Monday, February 23, 2009, 11:08 PM > Damn -- William again gets off another excellent phrasing > when he says: > > > It's not my real opinion that anything material > can literally acquire > > subjective attributes. > > > Once, at a gathering, the very articulate Whistler gave a > talk and got off a > good bit. Wilde, a rival at coming up with prizable > phrasings, said, "Very > good, James, I wish I'd said that." To which > Whistler replied, "Don't worry, > Oscar, you will." > > William goes on: > > > "most folks expect the artist to embody his work > with meanings, it's > > assumed that artworks should be "unpacked" > to find those meanings when in fact > > it's really a matter of how much of their > subjectivity can be pretended to be > > packed in, as if it really could." > > > My view is that a work (even a word) "occasions" > notion, in this sense: The > the mind of the contemplator , by virtue of his inventory > of associations with > the word, plus his receiving appartus, will, as he > contemplates, summon up the > notions he may call "The meaning for him". > > I now have a website. I recently revised it. On the > "Home page" I now -- > probably inadvisedly -- get very ruminative and say: > > "The original "About the Plays" folder on > this site had three descriptions of > the plays that were almost as facts-only as a police > blotter. I wrote those > descriptions, and they were light on asserting > "meanings" or "themes", because > I think pronouncements like that restrict a work's > apparent scope, and hobble > viewers' imaginations. Talk of its "meaning" > tends to suggest the play is > merely a useful ladder leading up to the real value: a > non-fiction lesson. The > real value of a play or novel or movie for me is in the > multi-rung ladder itself, > the story and its effects at each rung, just as it is in an > opera or > symphony. > > "If the rungs can evoke tensions, laughter, gasps, > rills of deep assent, a > playwright should leave it to the viewers to find their own > meanings and themes > -- and they will be as various as the viewers' > histories and receiving > apparatuses. There is, in the end, no "the" > meaning of any work of art." > > When William talks of seeking "meanlessness" in > his works, My reading is not > that he doesn't want his audience to think/feel a > thing. I presume he wants > them to feel one hell of a lot. > > > > > > ************** > You're invited to Hollywood's biggest party: Get > Oscars > updates, red carpet pics and more at Moviefone. > (http://movies.aol.com/oscars-academy-awards?ncid=emlcntusmovi00000001)
