thread: 2005-11-22 : A Seriously Social Issue
On 2005-11-29, Matthijs Holter wrote:
Ron, I didn't mean to pervert your point; I was going off it on a tangent. And my tangent is the suffering-visionary thing. What I wrote was ambiguous, because I'm ambivalent about the whole thing. I like suffering visionaries, sometimes; most of the time I like people who do whatever they do really well.
I don't see, however, how "sacrificing human interactions" can make for better art. I'm not saying it doesn't, or can't; I'm just saying I can't think of an example - or find anything in my experience - where it would.
There is, as far as I can see, no single question that can decide whether you're an Artist. Do you have to suffer? Do you have to be willing to make great sacrifices? No. You have to produce great art. That usually takes time and effort... and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it doesn't even take strong emotional involvement.
