[Nettime-bold] S&D Redivivus! Willy vs. Wally! A New Essay!

[Dan Schneider <cosmoetica@att.net>]

http://www.cosmoetica.com/S&D.htm#S3-DES3

S3-DES3
Shakespeare, Stevens, & The Problem With Greatness
Copyright © by Dan Schneider, cosmoetica@att.net , 8/23/01

Bonus    Bonus #2    Bonus #3

  Let me propose that 1 can learn far more from a study of the
near-great in human endeavors than from the great. This may, initially,
strike many as odd because logic would seem to dictate that the better 1
is at something the more it has to offer the layety in terms of insights
into its subject matter & its creation. Au contraire! Well, at least at
such a high level. When 1 speaks of the difference between lower level
activities- say between the bad & passable or the good & very good-
commonsense holds true. 1 does 99% of the time learn more from a better
endeavor (in this case art or poetry). Yet there the learning
opportunity comes from both the strengths & weaknesses of the poem.
There is a balance. But when that balance skews too far such
opportunities dissipate. Now, this is no problem with a horrid work of
art. A piece of doggerel may be rancid & offer nothing good from which
to draw- BUT, its terribility is so manifest that it’s a relatively easy
matter to not duplicate it. The other end is where problems occur.
Excellence is very difficult to reproduce- for an amateur or a
professional. In a great work of art or poem (especially, since it is
the highest art & least dependent upon the physical) the excellence is
so abundant & the bad so little that learning opportunities are few.
Extreme excellence or greatness, therefore, is fundamentally different
from extreme ineptitude- not just in the obvious quality but in the
explicability of it. But really- just how is it different? This is the
point of this essay! While 1 can always find words to pillory the bad,
greatness carries with it, almost always, the ineffable. There is ever a
bit of mystery as to why something moves up that last notch or 2 from
excellent or near-great to great- even if the majority of its essence is
explicable; but badness is absurdly plain. And since we all know that
learning is the hoped-for byproduct of failure the dilemma of greatness
sits thumbing its nose at the hordes of mortal would-be artists & poets.

  Let us now examine my initial proposal- & qualify it. 1 cannot only
learn more from the near-great than from the great, but 1 can also learn
more about greatness from the near-great than from the great. The
reasoning is the same: perfection borders the immortal & ineffable.
Near-greatness is close, but its very flaws allow us to see where the
artist/poet was going & possibly how & why he both failed greatness- but
nearly attained it. It’s a near-parallel to the old proposition about
God: if 1 could truly understand the Divine it would no longer be
Divine- but angels plague us. So, with proposition in hand, let us now
scan about for examples of greatness & its lesser cousin....



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