Saturday, November 08, 2008

Art is Delusion

This is a response I made to Mastery-Mystery's striking short-short piece, "Ninja Boy and the Clouds."

Tragically funny! That really is what an imaginative person is given to feel like in this society.
For instance, my family is dreadfully proud of me going to nursing school (feh!) because it will "make me into somebody." The fact that I've published a book is a "cute little diversion." My mother at least would prefer that I didn't publish another one because it distracts from "more important things," but she puts up with my madness as long as I continue "real" pursuits, such as the damn nursing school.

And now my nit-picking comes into place. About my comment, not his work.
"Amusing" would have been a better choice of words than funny. I often find myself amused (or bemused) by things that I realize are not actually very funny. There's sort of a helpless feeling that goes along with it. My thought generally is that fate/the powers that be/the Universe has a cruel sense of humor. Or that a deity such as Loki is playing a prank on hapless humanity. And I ponder the thought by Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes that the Higher Power "is mean or it's arbitrary, and either way, it gives me the creeps."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I liked the "Ninja" piece too.

About God, in Matt Groening's pre-Simpsons strip, LIFE IS HELL, Bongo does lists of "Arguments for why God exists" (a very short list) and "Arguments for why God doesn't exist" (a longer list, and one of the arguments is "Republicans"). I guess the "mean and arbitrary" reminded me of that.