Thank you all for reading! If you enjoyed this, please subscribe to THE ROSE FIRE, which I expect to launch in June, on "Wild Wisdom, Beauty, and the Good of Souls": https://pauljpastor.substack.com/p/coming-soon
Brilliant, Paul. Thank you. I think the machine proliferation (its super-efficient and mind boggling self-replication), also serves to drown out all art still aimed at authentic expression. The voice of Legion has ever desired to invade and dominate all spaces but now it has the perfect technological delivery system. As a Christian fiction writer, I know that part of the journey involves an exorcism of my own internal Narcissus, but that reflective surface is now everywhere in the digital visibility trap. It’s tough and only getting tougher out here. Does this resonate?
Wow. One of the best essays I’ve read in a while, wrapped up with that chilling comparison of our reliance on smart tech to Narcissus drowning in a mirror-like pool. I read this at a particularly apropos time, as I make my way through Eggers’ “The Circle.”
Absolutely. We Christians don't have to stand for the pretend; we can joyfully embrace the value of embodiment, reality, and vulnerability in an art world which prizes superficiality and irony. I see this constantly in the fine arts, with paintings having been reduced to branded investment pieces, and in poetry, with the "pyramid-scheme workshop model" snuffing out anything clearly stated or formally precise. Fine essay!
Great article! To think it is possible to squash the individuality of the writer, artist, creator into a slim impersonal box is ludicrous. Where is the depth, the nuance, the feeling, emotion and back story that makes creative works come to life?
When we lose that, we lose what we were called to be, individual reflections of our Master Creator. Our Maker gifts each of us uniquely, that we may come together in a harmonious symphony to glorify Him.
This is such a profound piece! The person who is truly like a tree planted by streams of water (Psalm 1) is the one who nurtures their interior life by meditating on the word of God day and night --- not the one perpetually self-focused or pretending they are the centre of the galaxies.
Thank you for these wise insights, Paul. I just finished reading Saving Beauty, and I deeply appreciated the critique of an "aesthetics of smooth," which I think is another way of saying an aesthetics of sentimentality. In my forthcoming book Beauty Is Oxygen, I address this with some help from Christian Wiman and his brilliant line that "God goes belonging to every riven things," which means that God's beauty goes belonging to wounds as well as empty tombs. Thank you for being a faithful guide on these topics.
Thank you all for reading! If you enjoyed this, please subscribe to THE ROSE FIRE, which I expect to launch in June, on "Wild Wisdom, Beauty, and the Good of Souls": https://pauljpastor.substack.com/p/coming-soon
Cheers,
Paul
Brilliant, Paul. Thank you. I think the machine proliferation (its super-efficient and mind boggling self-replication), also serves to drown out all art still aimed at authentic expression. The voice of Legion has ever desired to invade and dominate all spaces but now it has the perfect technological delivery system. As a Christian fiction writer, I know that part of the journey involves an exorcism of my own internal Narcissus, but that reflective surface is now everywhere in the digital visibility trap. It’s tough and only getting tougher out here. Does this resonate?
Wow. One of the best essays I’ve read in a while, wrapped up with that chilling comparison of our reliance on smart tech to Narcissus drowning in a mirror-like pool. I read this at a particularly apropos time, as I make my way through Eggers’ “The Circle.”
Absolutely. We Christians don't have to stand for the pretend; we can joyfully embrace the value of embodiment, reality, and vulnerability in an art world which prizes superficiality and irony. I see this constantly in the fine arts, with paintings having been reduced to branded investment pieces, and in poetry, with the "pyramid-scheme workshop model" snuffing out anything clearly stated or formally precise. Fine essay!
Great article! To think it is possible to squash the individuality of the writer, artist, creator into a slim impersonal box is ludicrous. Where is the depth, the nuance, the feeling, emotion and back story that makes creative works come to life?
When we lose that, we lose what we were called to be, individual reflections of our Master Creator. Our Maker gifts each of us uniquely, that we may come together in a harmonious symphony to glorify Him.
Try containing that in a box.
Hey Paul:
This is such a profound piece! The person who is truly like a tree planted by streams of water (Psalm 1) is the one who nurtures their interior life by meditating on the word of God day and night --- not the one perpetually self-focused or pretending they are the centre of the galaxies.
Blessings,
Don
Thank you for these wise insights, Paul. I just finished reading Saving Beauty, and I deeply appreciated the critique of an "aesthetics of smooth," which I think is another way of saying an aesthetics of sentimentality. In my forthcoming book Beauty Is Oxygen, I address this with some help from Christian Wiman and his brilliant line that "God goes belonging to every riven things," which means that God's beauty goes belonging to wounds as well as empty tombs. Thank you for being a faithful guide on these topics.
Come Lord Jesus
Excellent