Dissolution

[susanstinson]

Can't remember if I posted this. I was interested in this quote that I ran into in the Feb 14&21 New Yorker in "The Misfit," a profile by Mark Singer of the television writer David Milch. Milch quotes William James in "The Varieties of Religious Experience" (which I had also run into in a book my brother gave me about the painter George Inness):

"James says that every vision that ever came to anyone is prefaced by a sense of dissolution of the self. It's the fragmentation of ego that allowed what he called the oceanic sense to flow in. I find that when I'm merely thinking about a scene I'm in an egoist state, which is the opposite of the state of being where you suppress the ego and go out in spirit to the characters. What writing should be is a going out in spirit."

Comments

[francita.livejournal.com]

Lovely to see you posting so much! I was discussing the value of learning foreign languages with a French friend of mine who is also a teacher the other week and she remarked that learning a language is s'ouvrir à l'autre' (opening oneself up to the other). I think that there's something in the quote you posted in that art, like language, is so much about allowing for something outside of us to shape who we 'are', to allow for a Self which is ever-changing, fluid. The instability is scary, remaining open to it is hard work, but it's perhaps where our most beautiful encounters lie.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

...learning a language is s'ouvrir à l'autre' (opening oneself up to the other).

Before I die, I'd like to do this well, in this way, at least once.

The instability is scary, remaining open to it is hard work, but it's perhaps where our most beautiful encounters lie.

I think so, too -- and you put this so clearly. Makes me want to wave and grin at you.

[francita.livejournal.com]

Heh. Imagine me grinning and waving back at you. As for opening oneself up to the other, I think you do this supremely well, anyway. But learning a language is hugely rewarding. Definitely go for it!

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Thanks, sweetheart.