The Hidden Appeal of The Mona Lisa PDF
Preview The Hidden Appeal of The Mona Lisa
© 1998 by Barry Krusch A Public Domain Work This document may be freely re-transmitted and republished in its entirety and without alteration by any person or body for any and all purposes. LAST UPDATED: August 24, 1998 The latest version of this document may be btained t www.krusch.com. 2 The Hidden Appeal of the Mona Lisa Introduction I have a lot of affection for this little work, but it's very difficult to try to explain exactly what it is. It might be helpful to explain the procedure by which I wrote it. For the last 20 years, I have been filling notebook after notebook (67 so far) with ideas that have popped into my mind. The first 39 volumes of these notebooks are on this CD. The remaining 28, however, are not, at least in their original form. One of the things I always wanted to do was to organize these ideas into some kind of logical order, as opposed to the chronological order they are currently in. The current book The Hidden Appeal Of The Mona Lisa is one such attempt. Basically, I went through the remaining 28 notebooks, and wrote down the most interesting and/or significant ideas I could find. Once I located the ideas, I then tried to arrange them in some sort of a semantic flow, where one idea would lead right into the other. In this way, I could show the ideas’ essential unity, a unity not readily apparent when they are arranged in chronological and seemingly illogical form. So here it is. This book is meant to be read from start to finish in one sitting, to make its greatest impact. I hope you like it. Barry Krusch August 24th, 1998 3 The Hidden Appeal of the Mona Lisa Advice to the Musician If you’re going to miss a note, miss it with passion. Mr. Bernstein Died This room is empty. The World goes on — how sad for the World. The Missing Law of Thermodynamics Entropy is half the story. The Hope of Sleep Surely there is a dream between these nightmares. Soothing the Savage Breast The music restores a balance. Paradox Pure sound is rather limited in expression. The Invisible Man You’re invisible when you utter no concepts that would identify you as an “outsider.” 4 The Hidden Appeal of the Mona Lisa Bach to Gershwin Music grows young. Seeing-As The behavior of children provides excellent metaphors for the behavior of adults. Themes in The Sound of Music Childhood Music Nature Religion Blooming /Coming of Age Happiness Compassion Good Evil Masks/Deception Authority/Discipline/Freedom Banishment/Escape A Definition of Art Violation of expectation + congruence. The Devil’s View of Heaven The Devil finds Heaven naive. 5 The Hidden Appeal of the Mona Lisa Green Thumb Naivete should be cultivated, like a flower in a garden. The “South Pacific” Colloquy Barry: (singing) “One hundred and one, pounds of fun, that’s my little honey bun, get a load of honey bun toni - ight.” Margaret: I’ve never weighed 101 pounds. Barry: (continues) “I’m thinking of my, sweetie pie, only sixty inches high, every inch is packed with dyn - o - mi - ite.” Margaret: Oh, so she’s her ideal body weight. Barry and Margaret Barry: Are you an agnostic? Margaret: I don’t know. Barry: What is the function of the earlobe? Margaret: To connect the earrings to the ear. Barry: Marriage is a lot like capturing a wild animal and taming it. Margaret: I think it’s more like taking in a domestic animal and giving it a home, like a stray dog or cat. Barry: Your nose veers to the left. Margaret: People with glass noses shouldn’t throw stones. Nocturnal Conversation Barry: You’re my pear chop. Margaret: (half-asleep) You’re my lamb tree. 6 The Hidden Appeal of the Mona Lisa Margaret’s Immutable Personality Even in my dreams she stays in character. Margaret Margaret: (half-asleep) You’re so far awake — more than me. There’s No Place Like Home I want to dive back into my ignorance. Inexperience is the Greatest Teacher The old dog is more experienced than the new dog — but it’s the new dog that learns new tricks. Break on Through to the Other Side Women should be more aggressive with their sensitivity. Jekyll She’s nice. But what’s on the “B” side? Premonition I see her future in every sentence she speaks. 7 The Hidden Appeal of the Mona Lisa Sigh When this universe meets that universe, it shakes its head. Two Standards of Living Exterior and Interior. Macbeth Recursive Ambiguity in The last words in the Porter’s speech in the beginning of Act II, Scene 3 of Macbeth are “remember the Porter.” This has an eerie feel. The Porter is ostensibly talking to Macduff and Lennox (“give me a tip”), but because the speech immediately preceding is so a propos to the character of Macbeth, so on- target, the line might as well be addressed to the audience — “Remember what I’ve said.” Here one side of the ambiguity keeps us in the play — the other comes out of the play — like a living actor stepping off a movie screen. Going to the Movies Christianity is like a movie — people view it, and like it, but it’s not their life. Philosophy as film. Made in Heaven Great poetry is the result of a perfect marriage between the conscious and the subconscious. The Meaning of Art 8 The Hidden Appeal of the Mona Lisa Art meaning should be seen as food meaning, not language meaning. The taste of an apple is not true or false — nor is the meaning of an artwork. The Power of Chess You may “think” you think about a Chess problem — but if all you’ve done is come up with the wrong answer, then you haven’t thought. Learning Chess is the great humbler. After 1000 “I know the answer’s, and finding out you are wrong, you finally realize you don’t know the answer. Chess is great because it is objective. A can prove B is wrong. The Objectivity of Art 1) “The murmuring chimes lullaby a tranquil melody, as a hushed mist blankets the luminous golden dawn.” 2) “The griping, plump, phlegmatic, treacherous plutocrat was out-blatted by a cacophony of Jazz.” Which is the most beautiful sentence? The Subjectivity of Environment A woman in a room of men is surrounded by difference; a man in a room of men is surrounded by identity. The Privacy of Experience Greatness is not just The Rite of Spring, but 1) the The Rite of Spring performed live 2) in Carnegie Hall 3) by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 9 The Hidden Appeal of the Mona Lisa 4) on April 4, 1990 5) in seat BB122 (not E12, which had a person in front who didn’t stop turning their program, and imbalanced sound) 6) heard by BK 7) who had been exposed to X, Y, and Z, and so in mood Q. How private an experience is! Insight on Insight What makes an insight an insight: every subject has several possible predicates — you not only picked X, you picked X over Y, even though Y is also true. This gives the content its force. If you did X, you’d be a) betraying something. b) dead inside. c) ? Part of the insight is what’s not said. The Subjectivity of Possibility Mr. A does not know the contents of a barrel. Mr. B does. For Mr. A, it is possible there is nothing in the barrel. For Mr. B, it is not possible. Analysis of a Two-Line Poem The color of this poem is black that language isn’t fashionable There is an interceding thought between the two lines of this poem, which is 10 The Hidden Appeal of the Mona Lisa that “Black is a color frequently used by poets in poetry [e.g. Sylvia Plath]. These poets perceive this color as being fashionable, which it is not.” The interceding thought gives meaning to the poem, because it contains an unstated “bridge concept” of which the subconscious is intuitively aware, and gives the poem a different, non-prose meaning — an aesthetic meaning unachievable without omitting the “bridge concept.” Aside from creating the implicit focus on the bridge, the second line directly addresses the reader, breaking the frame of “art-as-world (to be immersed in)” and creating the self-referential frame of “art-as-object (to be examined).” This new view of art creates its own meaning, an aesthetic meaning. The combination of factors — the frame-break of Line One (“A poem is capable of being described as having a color”), the selection of the Color (black = death, depressing, evil), the implicit focus on the bridge, and the frame-break of Line Two (art as object, thus a shift from reader as passive spectator to participant) — is what gives the poem its ultimate aesthetic meaning: a poetic meaning achieved by the compression of prose meaning into a very dense space. Like creating a diamond from coal. Fifteen Poems 1 We’re the one to left the outer sun 2 “No,” you’re history. Pack your bags, leave town. Say good-bye to the progeny
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