Ways of Seeing

Ernest Hemingway moved to Paris in 1922. He had yet to publish a story. In his pocket was a letter of introduction from Sherwood Anderson to … just about all the established writers already living on the Left Bank. Chief among them was Gertrude Stein. Another was Ezra Pound, who told Hemingway that if he wanted to write, he would need to read the Russians, the French, the English, etc, etc. Just as well—Pound taught—Hemingway would need to immerse himself in all the art forms. Only then, Pound suggested, can the artist (and by extension, all non-artists, too) really understand how to “see” humanity.

The arts ought to be important in everyone’s life. They seldom are. Living gets in the way. Of course, there are those who make the time to be part of the arts culture.

Ways-of-Seeing.com is for these two sorts of people and all the others. It’s not meant to be educational, though I’ll learn something from the conversation that happens between the essays I write and the comments (perhaps response essays?) the posts receive. It’s all about conversation, experience, a nudge in the direction towards the arts culture—what’s out there and what’s worth spending your limited time on—and away from the stream of media noise grasping at our conscious.

The categories run the gamut of arts culture…and the idiosyncrasies of my thinking on its subjects. What arts do you like? What would you like to see discussed on ways-of-seeing?

Tags: Seeing in Progress //