Intentions Part 1

I went through a stage in my life where I would start an essay, get about halfway, then tuck the miserable bit of writing away in a folder on my computer to edit later (read: never to be looked at again until my biographers are forced to sift through it to get a clue to my complex thought life).

Recently I accidentally happened upon these writings and thought it might be fun to share them with you (in several installments), since you wouldn't be reading this blog anyway if you weren't obsessed with my every thought. I warn you, though, time has not been good to these essays (written two to three years ago); they are clunky and self-conscience, more so than I remember. But I guess my writing hasn't changed much beyond that, has it?

Maybe I will try to make something coherent out of these one day, but for now let's just air the dirty laundry and see what happens. First up, some rambling writ to do with art. Shocking, no?

The Artistic Element is an element as real as flame or water or dust.
The Artistic Element is a gift, given by God.
It is a means by which we may glorify our Creator, what better way to honor the Creator than through creativity?

On Storytelling
&
Overemphasis

What is it about the film that knocks you over the head with its sentiment that appeals to so many people? Is this sort of storytelling bad storytelling? Is it ever right to indulge in bad storytelling for the sake of the point you’re trying to make? Let’s examine Christ’s Storytelling (if anybody had a point to make it was him) I think that Christ’s parables should be the ultimate example to us in storytelling (by storytelling I mean not only novels and the like but also; paintings, ballet, rap-songs, film, Poetry... (the list goes on) in short anything that relates a story), so I think it best if we examine one of our Masters own stories for the answers to these questions (along the way let us see how Jesus makes known the point of his own artwork) incidentally you may be offended by my calling Christ’s parables “Art”, if so than you should know that we are probably working with different definitions of the word Art. Art is not something to be enjoyed by the sophisticated elite only, who happen to have enough money to get into those stuffy museums, rather it is entirely relevant (albeit incomplete) way to communicate truth

The person who separates what the intended effect of a song you hear on the radio (that is, God’s intent) from the intended effect of The Parables of Jesus, has missed the point of art; in this case art has become something what even the smallest schoolboy dreads with a dread that takes years of education and training to overcome: A Museum Piece. Storytelling is to recall a historical event, even if that event has not yet taken place
The fact that I took a shower this morning after getting out of bed, is supposedly a historical event. I will allow that it is historical, but is it real? I think that if you asked Solomon he would say “No of course not!, [edit] Don’t even think it!”
Odysseus’ journey home is more real to me than the historical event in question.
-vanity as history
-allegory less vain; it cuts through the manure spread across reality
-two sides, same cursed coin
-’Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.’
A real live parable:
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear.”

Do you object to my usage of Parables as models of Art? So do I. In a way.