There's a lot of Artaud (15 volumes in the Gallimard complete works)
and he can be hard going (I wouldn't put myself through the 15
volumes) but at his best the writing is dazzling. Theatre and its
Double is an essential and inspiring text for anyone interested in
theatre. And Nietzsche is one of the few philosphers I can read with
enjoyment, though it's the Nietzsche of The Gay Science rather than
Thus Spake Zarathustra, which is a bit portentous for my taste...but I
do find both of them funny as well as terrifying. They do have a lot
in common.
All best
Alison
On 9/27/06, Desmond Swords <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Philosophy is mental exercise and all who have a bash at thinking out their
> fundamental take on any aspect of art - from visual to theatre - are
> hopefully cognisant that our theories are just that.
>
> I know nothing of Artuad except he is very heavy going on the page. I
> stumbled across him at University and he was a figure beyond the
> understanding to me and my student colleagues on the Drama course.
>
> Neitze I read and found him as uniquely boring and long-winded as Grave's
> "White Godess or Yeats'"Vision."
>
> The "Vision" is Yeats' distillation of poetic understanding and represents
> the spoil of a life long mental digging or the individual minings brought up
> as a result of his verse making. Reading this is the aural equivalent of
> seeing the machinary of his mind exposed, like an engine cut in half in a
> mechanics class, a Damien Hirst surgically splt Cow or a 3D computer model
> of the brain in all its intracacy.
>
> It is interesting for a short while until you come to realise that the
> writing is not concerned with explaining to a reader what they think, but an
> attempt on their part to make sense of themselves. A shelter constructed in
> language which no one but themsleves really understand and the exercise of
> creating faith. Our stay against a world of potential unbelievers ready to
> laugh or dismiss our grand design because of immensley tenuous foundations
> upon which most base their philosophy - is so far removed from genuine
> reality.
>
> The White Godess is Grave's Ars Poetica andlike the Da Vinci Code. The
> numerous cruxes in both "arguments" means it is Graves just juggling a
> million ifs and buts -in a dazzling and often informative way - but like
> Yeats, Neitze, Artuad and most other literary thinkers, not a great read and
> with "facts" thin to nonexistent
>
>
> The one drama theoristst who stuck in my head was the sociologist Erving
> Goffman, who has a theory called "Deep Acting." This is something Doctors,
> nurses, firemen, police, soldiers, secretaries, binmenand basically everyone
> does to a certain extent, when playiong out their role at work. Another one
> is Colin Turnball the antropologidst who writes fascinating studies of a
> rainforest tribe in Uganada. Living the truly prehistoric life, his
> supposedly scientifi mind got affected so much he ended up arguing that
> antropology has to address the concept of "spirit."
>
> Greek talkers are combined to become the template of philosophy, but they
> were mad as a bag of moody kittens as well. We all are.
>
--
Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
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