One person who I've always wanted to see through the eyes of is Leonardo Da Vinci. He saw things in such a strange and unique way. Just the variety of subjects he studdied and drew and invented. He must have been off his rocker. Somewhere between insanity and genius.
One of the things De Vinci was facinated with was ugliness. In his mind something that was extremely ugly was just as worthy of attention as something that was extremely beautiful because it was striking in a way that, to him, was another kind of beauty.
Sometimes we write stories that are beautiful but sometimes we write stories that are horifying or shocking or just . . . odd. And yet, even when our stomach is twisted in knots and our palms are sweating we say "that was some beautiful writing". In fact the tighter the knot, the sweatier the palms, the more beautiful we say the writing is. Because the 'beauty' doesn't have to come from nice, aesthetically pleasing feelings. It can come from a piece of writing's ability to affect us. To strike us. To make us think even if those thoughts are uncomfortable.
Part of me wants to connect that back to "Truth is beauty. Beauty is truth." and decide that if beauty doesn't have to beautiful then hard ugly truths don't falsify that statement, but I won't. Because this ramble is already highfaluten enough for a Thursday evening.
Go forth and write striking tales with which to affect the universe.
3 comments:
I love Da Vinci's idea that hideous things deserve attention too. It's like actually facing a horrible problem than ignoring it and just focusing on the pretty things in life. The pretty things are great, but sometimes the ugly things are even more important.
Nice ramble :).
This was an awesome post! It would definitely be awesome to see through the eyes of Da Vinci, even for just a day.
Love this! It's so true, and what great fodder for brain . . . food. Which, obviously, I need more of. Now.
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