On Art
Here is a great quote from Kurt Vonnegut (the author) that I stumbled upon and thought it important to share with you.
If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practising an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.
3 Comments:
Ah yes, a fine quote indeed! Reminds me on how in my corner of the world (the holy grail of superficial suburbia! the mass-marketed laissez-faire nightmare that is the West Island!), you can really anger your parents by telling them your gonna pursue a career by going into...art! This will usually get them to give you the usual you need to either get a degree in science or business speech, because hey luxury and wealth are sure fire ways to mesure hapiness! But anywho im just glad my parents are very supportive of my passion for history. I wanna become a teacher, some may see this as not being ambitious and aspiring but I feel my job will most help many future college (or university) students to develop their sense of critical thinking. And that to me is enough to carry on the torch to a future generation of youth who will have to live in an increasingly capitalistic society in which the individual and his acquired wealth will have priority over a score of other things that represent the collective good of society.
Another interesting thing is my dads stay at the beau art during its period as an arts college(60s and early 70s). My dad was slap dab in the middle of all of Quebecs most aspiring artists, everything from the most experimental of the bunch to the supporters of the counter culture movement (A LHOMMAGE!)...must of been really interesting! And I wont even get into the amount of drugs he did :)
Aspiration is a really dumb terms. I don't really believe in this whole "sets your sights as high as you can" or "don't close any doors" bullshit. If you know what you want to do, that's amazing in this day and age. Most people (myself included) only have a general direction, if that, but nothing concrete.
Yes, I was sort of thinking about the West Island when I posted this, and it goes back a bit to the article on contentment that I wrote not long ago. I have gotten that whole "business or science" speech a few times and always found it to be completely ridiculous. You should do whatever makes you fucking happy! My parents ended up dropping it and just accepting whatever "made my happy".
i like art. im very creative and stuff. itsok, i spose...peace homie!
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