I have purposefully avoided much of the academic research into arts for the purposes of personal uncovering and subsequent deeper understanding. This approach was largely the same I took with philosophy, although as I later learned, at some point a wall rises in the solitary introspection of any given subject, and one must turn attention to the world to see what others have learned and then left, as texts and manuscripts, in their wake. As expected, this way of investigating is much more difficult and time consuming, but the plus side is that learning of complex topics - such as philosophy or depth psychology - is easier when having to come to some personal understanding of it beforehand. In philosophy, for example, more than once I've come across some term that felt impenetrable at first, but transformed into triviality once I figured out that it was something I'd already thought about on my own, and the author simply chose to invent a new word for it.
Within philosophy and psychology, the step into more academic research isn't as foreboding as with arts - for, after all, there's agreed upon "categories of understanding" and a whole history of thinkers to learn from, and whether their methods or conclusions have been "objectively correct", it is not that much of an issue, since one can always take something that works, and leave the rest, or at least put in hold, without it affecting one's overall view of the world too much. Naturally, there are exceptions, authors whose works can be truly life-changing after truly understanding them, authors who blend genres between art, philosophy and psychology (Thomas Ligotti), but as aforementioned, I had largely done my thinking in solitude prior to venturing into these worlds, and thus my grounding was already relatively fixed - solid but flexible enough to not disregard any possible points of interest. Why is it different with the tenuous world of arts then? Simply because the academic research has the possibility of poisoning both "the method" and the "inner work". I was once asked had I not read this or that author's opinions on the subject I was writing of - and fair enough, a lack of academic knowledge may force one to reinvent the wheel... sometimes incorrectly so. However, this is precisely the issue I wanted to avoid - for had I read the particular author prior to my personal investigation, I may've later turned on this author for explanation of said issue, and forevermore disregarded the whole question altogether, considering it "solved" by this author who had conveniently provided the answer for me. Now, as I'm forced to work through it, I have to think and re-think my position through these blog-posts (rambly as they may be) in addition to personal offline writing. Now then, when I eventually, perhaps inevitably, stumble upon this author in question, I have a working theory on my mind that of which I'm relatively comfortable about, and so the fear of taking the author's words "for granted" is lessened. One can never fully alleviate this issue of "parasitical thought influence", but the resilience against it is strenghtened by one's own better understanding of his own position, and so... well, hopefully an overall better understanding of the thing has been achieved and possible mal-adaptive future path avoided. One such large question, that this whole preamble was aimed for, is the one posed in the caption-text: what is the purpose of art (or, as I think of it, The "Why" of Art)? For me the answer has been clear; an authentic representation of unconscious or collective unconscious forces (as far as the author can "see" into them) for the sake of Sophia. I still hold this position as a deep subjective truth - ie. this is what art means for me. Others may view artistic endeavours as a simple political tool, or as a device for reverse empathy (that may or may not have anything to do with the grander unconscious forces). Or it may be sublimative art therapy, used in specific settings for specific purposes. Or it may be something else, a multitude of interpretations and methods that I'm sure myriad authors have expressed in their writings, authors that I'm currently unaware of due to my lack of academic understanding. All I know is that now might be the correct time for venturing outside of isolative exploration, into a more academic, standardised research of the grand topic of Arts; sole purpose being the possibility of it leading into better, more accurate representations of forces of the unconscious. For Sophia.
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A.K
Gothic fiction novelist Archives
July 2023
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