To enjoy art one needs time, patience, and a generous heart, and criticism is done, by and large, by impatient people who have axes to grind. The worst sort of critics are (analogy coming) butterfly collectors — they chase something, ostensibly out of their search for beauty, then, once they get close, they catch that beautiful something, they kill it, they stick a pin through its abdomen, dissect it and label it. The whole process, I find, is not a happy or healthy one. Someone with his or her own shit figured out, without any emotional problems or bitterness or envy, instead of killing that which he loves, will simply let the goddamn butterfly fly, and instead of capturing and killing it and sticking it in a box, will simply point to it — ‘Hey everyone, look at that beautiful thing’ — hoping everyone else will see the beautiful thing he has seen.
- Dave Eggers
More at The Pirate Supply Store and The Superhero Supply Store and here.
Thank you for showing the way, Veerle.
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
ReplyDeleteOur meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--
We murder to dissect.
William Wordsworth, "The Tables Turned" 1798
And what do we do with the sacrifice?
ReplyDeleteThanks, buddy.
FYI ... Have you tried any Creminelli salumi? Italian, wrapped in brown paper. You'll love it ... and you can slice it yourself which means none of that funny plastic taste.