July 31, 1999

I think this will be short.

Our text for today is a brief sentence that tripped me up as I was strolling through Heidegger's essay, "The Origin of the Work of Art". He's talking about a statue of the god in a Greek temple, but he's also talking (it seems to me) about any work of art in any medium. He writes:

"It is not a portrait whose purpose is to make it easier to realize how the god looks; rather, it is a work that lets the god himself be present and thus it is the god himself."

This comes as close as anything else I've read to suggesting the way real art (in any medium) works on us. Almost literally, we expect to meet "the god" in and through art - in this poem, movie, or painting, The "magic " of art is its ability to rip open a space unlike any other space in our humdrum day. Then it invites us in to meet the god and be changed - even just a little. Anybody who writes poetry (even Pretend Poetry™ like mine) knows that sometimes the most unaccountable and beautiful things happen inside the poem. It's just given. And it's not hard to consider the divine as having some place in it. It's a very old notion that's only been tossed out in the past two hundred years or so. Heidegger seems willing to play with it. Of course, we've got to dress up "the god" in some more acceptable kind of 20th century clothing; but it's nice to see some of the old stuff hanging on.

Why am I going on about this? Maybe those 12 laps tonight have gone to my brain. Maybe a day without events can only justify itself by thinking.

Have I mentioned how much I love pizza?