Says a supernatural character in Haruki Murakami's "Killing Commendatore."
He continues:
“Cannot you just let the painting speak for itself?... If that painting wants to say something, then best to let it speak. Let metaphors be metaphors, a code a code... Franz Kafka was quite fond of slopes... He was drawn to all sorts of slopes. He loved to gaze at homes built on the middle of a slope. He would sit by the side of the street for hours, staring at houses built like that. He never grew tired of it and would sit there, tilting his head to one side, then straightening it up again. A kind of strange fellow.... Allegories and metaphors are not something you should explain in words. You just grasp them and accept them.”
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25 comments:
Both objective and subjective involve throwing.
The un-examined metaphor is not worth writing.
Accurate knowledge is okay but it means you can't know momentum.
The best objective analysis work is done in the groove so quickly you think it is subjective. This is what skill is.
Our house is built on a slope. Maybe that's my problem. The same floor is the first floor in the front and the second floor in the back. I like it that way, because I like being grounded and aloof. People enter our house and walk through to a certain spot, see the rest of it and exclaim, "It's a treehouse!"
This writer is a slope.
"The un-examined metaphor is not worth writing."
Don't you need to write it first?
It needs to be there to be examined.
Once it's there and in a position to be examined, the reader can examine it as well as the author. What does it add, for the reader, that the author also examined it?
Crack, that's the kind of thing people get fired for writing.
Slope is an ethnic slur but I don't remember which ethnic.
I have the feeling that if you called an American indian a slope it would count double, though. A new field of misapplied slurs.
It’s physically impossible for a minority to be racist though.
Slope is an ethnic slur? hmm. Never heard of it. Seems like if we take more and more aggressive action against the use of words, it gives those words more power of the referenced group: they are subordinate to the words.
"Slope is an ethnic slur? hmm. Never heard of it..."
Let me guess. You didn't live through the Vietnam War era.
Franz Kafka was quite fond of slopes...
When I read something like that I usually think "I doubt it", often followed by "even if it's true, so what?"
He would sit by the side of the street for hours, staring at houses
I doubt it.
He never grew tired of it
That's impossible.
A painting must speak for itself. Any painting that has to be explained is a fraud. And regarding Kafka and slopes, do we not all respond to certain features with an entirely subjective appreciation? This is what art is all about. OTOH, when it comes to science...
Ann Althouse said...
"Crack, that's the kind of thing people get fired for writing."
Two answers. The first is obvious, and the second is he's Japanese - not Vietnamese - so I can use "slope" the way I wanted - since I had to turn my head to grasp his idea..
We're living in a time when even meaning is losing meaning.
Let me guess. You didn't live through the Vietnam War era.
I did and my brother served in 'Nam. Never heard of 'slope' used as a racial slur. 'Gooks', maybe...
PETA has apparently decided that cow's milk is a symbol of white supremacy: PETA
mockturtle said...
"PETA has apparently decided that cow's milk is a symbol of white supremacy"
That's right, God Damn It - for now on - it's Almond Milk For Everybody!!!
More of this lunacy is always available (for your reading pleasure) on The Coal Train.
I read Doris Kearns Goodwin book, Team of Rivals, and then saw the Spielberg film, Lincoln. The film was said to be based on the Goodwin book. Maybe not. After Richmond fell, Lincoln visited that city. When he visited, the newly emancipated slaves came out of the shadows. They knelt before him and proclaimed Lincoln their savior. Some attempted to kiss his boots. Lincoln told them that they were now free and had no need to kneel before any man.,......This scene was not in the film. The blacks were uniformly depicted as dignified, articulate, and wise. They were not creatures of their time, but rather of ours.
Looks like the Game 7 Café was built on a slope.
William said...
"The blacks were uniformly depicted as dignified, articulate, and wise. They were not creatures of their time, but rather of ours."
Until I see blacks in rags, without dental or medical care, and worked under brutality "from sun up to sun down", the way blacks were actually treated, I will not think an actual slavery movie has yet been made in America - as conservatives and liberals alike howl we've made too many already.
Everything about us is warped by own self-deception.
Slavery was not a monolithic institution. Some plantations were a better deal for those enslaved than others. Washington had several hundred slaves. Only seventeen sought freedom even when the opportunity presented itself. Billy Lee, Washington's personal valet, was a man of considerable courage and intellect. He freely chose to remain Washington's slave. I don think you could nowadays depict the paradox of such a man. Perhaps he was a combination of Lear's Fool and Frodo's Sam.
Actually the etymology of the racial slur "slope" goes to the WWII Pacific Theatre, particularly the USMC vs Japan, or before with the China Marines, referring to the stereotypical angle of their foreheads. Vietnam was "Gook" focused in it's racial slurs, not that slope was excluded. Racial vocabulary was diverse.
That's the premise of The Life of Pi. I hope that I didn't ruin it for you.
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