Here's the quote of Campbell I said on one of the
threads I was going to post due to the conversation
began to skim upon creativity. Here's some quotes as
follows from "Oriental Mythology: The Masks of God":
[Chapter 2; Section III]
"In other words our X cannot, strictly speaking,
be taught, it can only be evoked, awakened in the
mind; as everything that comes 'of the spirit' must be
awakened.
The symbolism of the temple and atmosphere of
myth are, in this sense, catalysts of the numinous -
and therein lies the secret of their force. However,
the traits of the symbols and elements of the myths
tend to acquire a power of their own through
association, by which the access of the numinous
itself may become blocked. And it does, indeed,
become blocked when the images are insisted upon as
final terms in themselves: as they are, for example,
in a dogmatic credo."
[Chapter 2; Section IX]
"My own first guess, already named, is that it
was by the influence of art. For since mythology is
born of fantasy, and life or civilization brought to
form as a result of a literal mythic identification or
inflation, as a concrete imitatio dei, will
necessarily bear the features of a nightmare, a
dream-game too seriously played-in other words,
madness; whereas, when the same mythological imagery
is properly read as fantasy and allowed to play into
life as art, not as nature-with irony and grace, not
fierce daemonic compulsion-the psychological energies
that were formerly in the capture of the compelling
images take the images in capture, and can be deployed
with optional spontaneity for life's enrichment.
Moreover, since life itself is indeed such stuff as
dreams are made on, such a transfer of accent may
conduce, in time, to a life lived in noble
consciousness of its own nature."
[Chapter 2; Section IX]
"...the land of Egypt in which he ruled was
paradise: the sense remained of a divinity immanent
in the world. Man was not cut off. There had been no
Fall. The individual at death would stand before the
judgment seat of Osiris, but that was to be an affair
touching the virtues of only that particular case.
Mankind itself was not ontologically condemned, nor
was the universe. {SA comments: the universe is thus
quality which hints not to an ontological
condemnation} So that Egypt - definitely - is to be
recognized as belonging to the context rather of a
certain aspect of the Orient than of the West. The
inhabiting spirit of the mythology is wonder, not
guilt.
And finally it is surely appropriate to ask, now,
whether it may not have been though the magic of its
wonderful art that the cure of Egypt from its seizure
{Sa comments: "seizure" referring to the suttee
burials found in Eygpts first dynasties, Mesopotamia,
Sumer, and India} was effected, without breaking the
bond of wonder and yet humanizing its force. In
Mesopotamia the bond broke; but in Mesopotamia there
was no such glorious art as in Egypt. Indeed, there
was no match for Egyptian art anywhere in the world
until the Classic period of Greece; and after that the
Gupta period of India, c. 400 A.D., whence the magic
passed with Mahayana Buddhism to China and Japan."
SA continues: Art, the code of art, analogies...
Pirsig was onto something as I think about creativity,
as I mentioned to Jorge or Chris when they asked me
what would I ask of society and I answered - be
creative. I also think about the nightmare issues of
politics, the literalization of concepts, dogma - Art
Is So Very Important!!!
talking beaver,
SA
____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
Moq_Discuss mailing list
Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
Archives:
http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
