wondrous interplay between imagination and reason
Posted Nov 11th, 2007 at 04:03 PM by twin_born
Maybe the imagination creates what is new, but the imagination does not make the actual selection. The imagination does not ‘compose.’ A composition—and every work of art is one—is created in a wondrous interplay between imagination and reason,
the words and the ideas have ‘latent’ in their
consciousness, but now, when all caution and all censorship have let go, they are surfacing. It
can also be important for an artist not to let reason and reflection control a more or less
unconscious expression.
Shall I tell you a little story to illustrate this?”
“Sure.”
“It’s a very serious and a very sad story.”
“Okay.”
“Once upon a time there was a centipede that was amazingly good at dancing with all
hundred legs. All the creatures of the forest gathered to watch every time the centipede
danced, and they were all duly impressed by the exquisite dance. But there was one creature
that didn’t like watching the centipede dance—that was a tortoise.”
“It was probably just envious.”
“How can I get the centipede to stop dancing? thought the tortoise. He couldn’t just say
he didn’t like the dance. Neither could he say he danced better himself, that would obviously
be untrue. So he devised a fiendish plan.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“He sat down and wrote a letter to the centipede. ‘O incomparable centipede,’ he wrote, ‘I am a devoted admirer of your exquisite dancing. I must know how you go about it when you dance. Is it that you lift your left leg number 28 and then your right leg number 39? Or do you begin by lifting your right leg number 17 before you lift your left leg number 44? I await your answer in breathless anticipation. Yours truly, Tortoise.”
“How mean!”
“When the centipede read the letter, she immediately began to think about what she
actually did when she danced. Which leg did she lift first? And which leg next? What do you
think happened in the end?”
“The centipede never danced again?”
“That’s exactly what happened. And that’s the way it goes when imagination gets
strangled by reasoned deliberation.”
“That was a sad story.”
“It is important for an artist to be able to ‘let go.’
The surrealists tried to exploit this by
putting themselves into a state where things just happened by themselves. They had a sheet
of white paper in front of them and they began to write without thinking about what they wrote.
They called it automatic writing. The expression originally comes from spiritualism, where a
medium believed that a departed spirit was guiding the pen.
But perhaps there is an element of the unconscious in every creative process, for what do we actually mean by creativity?”
“I’ve no idea. Isn’t it when you create something?”
“Fair enough, and that happens in a delicate interplay between imagination and reason.
But all too frequently, reason throttles the imagination, and that’s serious because without
imagination, nothing really new will ever be created. I believe imagination is like a Darwinian
system.”
“I’m sorry, but that I didn’t get.”
“Well, Darwinism holds that nature’s mutants arise one after the other, but only a few of
them can be used. Only some of them get the right to live.”
“So?”“That’s how it is when we have an inspiration and get masses of new ideas. Thoughtmutants occur in the consciousness one after the other, at least if we refrain from censoring
ourselves too much. But only some of these thoughts can be used. Here, reason comes into its own.
It, too, has a vital function. When the day’s catch is laid on the table we must not forget to
be selective.”
“That’s not a bad comparison.”
“Imagine if everything that ‘strikes us’ were allowed to pass our lips! Not to speak of
jumping off our notepads out of our desk drawers! The world would sink under the weight of casual impulses and no selection would have taken place.”
“So it’s reason that chooses between all these ideas?”
“Yes, don’t you think so?
For there will always be an element of chance in the creative process. You have to turn the sheep loose before you can start to herd them.”
thts all...
its taken from ..Sophie’s World ..
tht I was reading so just wanted to share something with u people.
the words and the ideas have ‘latent’ in their
consciousness, but now, when all caution and all censorship have let go, they are surfacing. It
can also be important for an artist not to let reason and reflection control a more or less
unconscious expression.
Shall I tell you a little story to illustrate this?”
“Sure.”
“It’s a very serious and a very sad story.”
“Okay.”
“Once upon a time there was a centipede that was amazingly good at dancing with all
hundred legs. All the creatures of the forest gathered to watch every time the centipede
danced, and they were all duly impressed by the exquisite dance. But there was one creature
that didn’t like watching the centipede dance—that was a tortoise.”
“It was probably just envious.”
“How can I get the centipede to stop dancing? thought the tortoise. He couldn’t just say
he didn’t like the dance. Neither could he say he danced better himself, that would obviously
be untrue. So he devised a fiendish plan.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“He sat down and wrote a letter to the centipede. ‘O incomparable centipede,’ he wrote, ‘I am a devoted admirer of your exquisite dancing. I must know how you go about it when you dance. Is it that you lift your left leg number 28 and then your right leg number 39? Or do you begin by lifting your right leg number 17 before you lift your left leg number 44? I await your answer in breathless anticipation. Yours truly, Tortoise.”
“How mean!”
“When the centipede read the letter, she immediately began to think about what she
actually did when she danced. Which leg did she lift first? And which leg next? What do you
think happened in the end?”
“The centipede never danced again?”
“That’s exactly what happened. And that’s the way it goes when imagination gets
strangled by reasoned deliberation.”
“That was a sad story.”
“It is important for an artist to be able to ‘let go.’
The surrealists tried to exploit this by
putting themselves into a state where things just happened by themselves. They had a sheet
of white paper in front of them and they began to write without thinking about what they wrote.
They called it automatic writing. The expression originally comes from spiritualism, where a
medium believed that a departed spirit was guiding the pen.
But perhaps there is an element of the unconscious in every creative process, for what do we actually mean by creativity?”
“I’ve no idea. Isn’t it when you create something?”
“Fair enough, and that happens in a delicate interplay between imagination and reason.
But all too frequently, reason throttles the imagination, and that’s serious because without
imagination, nothing really new will ever be created. I believe imagination is like a Darwinian
system.”
“I’m sorry, but that I didn’t get.”
“Well, Darwinism holds that nature’s mutants arise one after the other, but only a few of
them can be used. Only some of them get the right to live.”
“So?”“That’s how it is when we have an inspiration and get masses of new ideas. Thoughtmutants occur in the consciousness one after the other, at least if we refrain from censoring
ourselves too much. But only some of these thoughts can be used. Here, reason comes into its own.
It, too, has a vital function. When the day’s catch is laid on the table we must not forget to
be selective.”
“That’s not a bad comparison.”
“Imagine if everything that ‘strikes us’ were allowed to pass our lips! Not to speak of
jumping off our notepads out of our desk drawers! The world would sink under the weight of casual impulses and no selection would have taken place.”
“So it’s reason that chooses between all these ideas?”
“Yes, don’t you think so?
For there will always be an element of chance in the creative process. You have to turn the sheep loose before you can start to herd them.”
thts all...
its taken from ..Sophie’s World ..
tht I was reading so just wanted to share something with u people.
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