Listy Lunes for september 22 2003
List the places you go when you want to escape the world.
I either read a good book that makes me forget everything around me or I take refuge in my head. No guarantee I will feel better though. I hardly ever read feel good books as I’m more interested in more complex stories. One book that made quite an impression on me lately is the Tora trilogy, written by Herbjorg Wassmo, that received the Literary Critics Award in 1982, the Bookseller’s Prize in 1983, and the Nordic Prize for literature in 1987. I’ve read it several times now and the book still gets under my skin. The trilogy consists of Huset med den blinde glassveranda (1981) (The house with the blind glass windows, 1987), Det stumme rommet (1983) (The dumb room) and Hudl�s himmel (1986) (Naked heaven).
Inside my head it’s usually not a happy place either. I tend to ask too many questions that can’t be answered. I tend to doubt a lot. I tend to worry as well. My thoughts keep me awake at night, even if they’re not worrying thoughts but relatively happy ones. I need to find the ‘off’-button. I don’t understand people that manage to think about nothing (what the heck is that, nothing?) yet at the same time I sometimes envy them. I just can’t seem to empty my head. Things like yoga that are supposed to make one feel calm inside, make me nervous. Breath exercises do that as well.
Come to think of it, I believe there’s no way of escaping the world. At least, not for me. The world is not only around me but inside me as well. I am a very cerebral kind of person. I try to analyse just about anything. I don’t ‘feel’ things, I ‘think’ I feel things. It’s kind of hard to explain.
Before you all start to think my life must be hell, I *do* have happy thoughts as well, e.g. when I think about Africa. Not the Africa you might know from the news, the famines, political instability and the like, but the other side of Africa. The rich culture, the people, the food, nature … the beauty and splendor of Africa. Even when I can’t physically be there, some part of me, of my being, always is there. I have other phantasies that make me feel good as well, but I prefer to keep those to myself for now.
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consider this … "Artistic creation is not born ex nihilo from the brains of individuals as a private language; it has always been a social practice. Ideas are not original, they are built upon layers of knowledge accumulated throughout history. Out of these common layers, artists create works that have their unmistakable specificities and innovations. All creative works reassemble ideas, words and images from history and their contemporary context."
"Only after the invention of the creative genius, practices of collaboration, appropriation and transmission were actively forgotten."
"Copyright pits author against author in a war of competition for originality – its effects are not only economic, it also naturalizes a certain process of knowledge production, delegitimates the notion of a common culture, and cripples social relations. Artists are not encouraged to share their thoughts, expressions and works or to contribute to a common pool of creativity. Instead, they jealously guard their “property” from others, who they view as potential competitors, spies and thieves lying in wait to snatch and defile their original ideas. This is a vision of the art world created in capitalism’s own image, whose ultimate aim is to make it possible for corporations to appropriate the alienated products of its intellectual workers."
"The private ownership of ideas over the last two centuries hasn't managed to completely eradicate the memory of a common culture or the recognition that knowledge flourishes when ideas, words, sounds and images are free for everyone to use."
The above from: Copyright, Copyleft & the Creative Anti-Commons
I don't want to exploit anyone's labor. Images and texts were mostly taken from the Internet and are usually linked to where I found them. These images and texts have touched me in one way or another, they've inspired me, made me think, served as a basis for the writing of poetry, etc. If you insist I take one such image or text you consider to be yours and yours only down, contact me, and I might. I'd prefer you to consider my blogging the image or text as a token of recognition, admiration or appreciation though. |
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September 23rd, 2003 | 
The shepherd
…
I believe in the world like in a daisy,
Because I see it. But I don’t think in it,
For thinking is not understanding…
The world wasn’t made for us to think about it
(to think is to be sick from the eyes)
But for us to look at it and agree…
To love is the eternal inocence,
And the only inocence is not to think…
Alberto Caeiro (Fernando Pessoa)
http://www.geocities.com/i_solaris/portugal.html
I, incidentally, go both for books and into my head to seek refuge from the world. I’m a pro…as I’ve been doing both since I was quite young (worried my parents). I don’t read “feel good” books, myself, but I find the action/stories in the books I read consume my mind.
The trick to working the in-your-head approach is to completely divorce yourself from the current state of affairs – books make excellent starting grounds. By placing yourself as a main character, or as yourself, into a new world set up by a book, you can come up with whole ranges of plots yourself. I do this nightly – very effective for blocking the “real world” out.
