Village Squire, 1979-11, Page 50Make it dull
if you want to be
an `artist'
BY KEITH ROULSTON
One of the things we're quickest to jump
on others about is hypocrisy. We love to
point out how hyprocritical our friends,
neighbours and especially our enemies are.
Yet it is the fault that we are likely to be
most guilty of ourselves. We are all
contradictions of our own beliefs. Few of
us are consistent. We like to bend our own
rules a little here and there to make life
easier.
No one is more self-righteously critical of
the hypocritical as the liberal, particularly
the liberal artist. Such a person loves to
point out the hypocrisy of the red neck, the
religious zealot, the conservative politi-
cian.
Most of my friends tend to be liberals
and many of them artists. Get them into a
political discussion and they'll start singing
the praises of "the people" and how
governments must be for "the people".
We mustn't have governments dominated
by the elite, by the rich and the powerful
but must govern according to the will of the
ordinary man in the street.
Yet it's wonderful to hear the tune
change when it comes to talking about their
own chosen field: the arts. Suddenly "the
people" become "the masses" and while
"the people" may be clean-cut, upstand-
ing, intelligent citizens, "The masses" are
savages and dolts who don't know what's
good for them.
Thus we have anything that is popular
being inferior because it is catering to the
masses. We have the inverse order of
value: the fewer people who like
something, the better it must be.
At the top (or is it bottom) of this scale
then is television. Anything that is watched
by millions of "the masses" around the
world every day can't be much good. Many
of my artist friends refuse to have a
television in their home on principal. Now I
must admit my own hypocrisy on the
subject. When I take a look at the list of the
48 Village Squire November 1979
10 most popular television shows I usually
find a shudder going down my back at the
very thought that millions of people want to
watch at least half of those shows. I want to
weep at the wasted opportunity these
unfortunate people may have missed to
have watched something "worthwhile" on
another channel at the time or to have sat
down with a good book. I'm no better than
the other hypocrites in that way.
And yet while I happen to personally
think a large chunk of television is a waste
of time and money (I cry when I hear how
much it takes to produce some of those
shows) I think there is nothing wrong with
a medium that can have such an effect on
so many people. If you believe in "the
people" tnen the best way for an artist to
reach them is on television. Most artists
however are more interested in the
opinions of their fellow artists than the
audience.
Next down the list of the "mass" media
for the artists is movies. They used to be
the bottom of the list of course but now
they've somehow gained prestige by the
fact that they came along before television
and not as many people are willing to pay
money to go out and see a movie as to sit at
home and watch the box.
Movies are even considered an art form
these days. Oh not all movies of course.
The more obscure the movie, the harder to
understand, the higher rating as art. Thus
the best American move can't compare
with the European movie makers. If France
Ford Coppola or Norman Jewison want to
really be artists they should shoot their
movies in Swahili and print subtitles across
the bottom so that only 10 per cent of their
normal audience would go to the movies.
Of course fewer people would get the
message of their films, fewer people would
be affected but the message would be so
much purer for being restricted to the few
who could sit through the obscurity of the
picture their eyeballs whizzing back and
forth at the speed of light to read the
subtitles while still watching the action. Of
course better still they should stick to
writing or directing for the stage. Even
then they shouldn't work in a theatre that
Tourism is important
to all of us
seats 400. 600. 1000 or even 2000 people,
but in one of those little warehouses that
you have to worry about being mugged to
get there and if you make it you wish you
had been mugged because it would have
been better than having the stacking chair
(with three legs intact) slowly gouge out
your left lung after removing your
shoulderblade.
If they're going to write a book. they
should be careful. Books are too readily
available to the masses. They should get
out their thesaurus and make sure they
pack their writing with as many difficult,
seldom used words.as possible so that the
ordinary person will give up quickly after
he's looked up 25 words in the first
paragraph. They should choose difficult
sentence structures or no sentence
structure at all to prove they are truly
creative and above worrying about
communicating with the masses. Choosing
a subject about which absolutely no one
cares to read. even their public school
English teacher wild always thought they
had the makings of a good writer will also
help.
And if the person succeeds then he will
truly be regarded as an artist. Of course
no one will know because no one will hear.
see or read his work but then that's the
ultimate goal. isn't it?
WEDDING BELLS
... AND FLOWERS
So, your wedding date has
been set, and now you are
making the arrangements.
Your flower order is
important. It
can help to
make the
day. and
also provide
mane
pleasant
memories,
We would
count it
a privilege °
to serve you
on this glad
occasion.
Listowel Florist Ltd.
Ed Van Geest
LISTOWEL, ONT.
170 Wallace N.
Listowel
Phone 291-2040
6,,,,,When you "say it with
flowers" from Listowel Florist,
"you've said it all." f
United No. 461
FTD No. 752675