Artists…


I was “minding my own business” at work last week when received an IChat message: the Radiohead video for “Lotus Flower” with a personal quote “I hope one day Ill have this guy clarity of thought…”

As I was reviewing the video we started discussing the meaning of his sentence. How do we, humans, define “state of clarity”? How do we distinguish clarity from dementia?

My friend´s argument was “he is free (refering to Thom Yorke), and that is why his art is so good, I wish I´de have the opportunity to free myself from all constraints when I am creating my work”. However even if I knew exactly what he meant I couldn’t stop thinking that Thom looked a little bit schizophrenic on that video so why is it that he looks cool?

For som weird reason, people find it difficult to define what is normal in human behaviour…there is a fine line distinguishing the creative musical genius from the mad hatter.

I guess it is perfectly understandable since living in society implies obedience to pre-determined social rules which always demands some sort of personal sacrifice. It is a small price to pay, most will say, for the emotional and physical “security” of belonging to a community. The reverse side of the coin is, of course, there are always some of us who dont fit quite well within the common rule, and the option for those is: pretend you are normal or…dont. Either way, you are fuc#%$d. If you are good at pretending good for you, if not, well…I really dont know what is the criteria that dictates that Da Vinci was a visionaire and Michelangelo a tormented soul beasides the fact that one had definetly more social skills than the other…

Take the Mad Hatter for instance: he is mad because he is stucked in a world ruled by an evil queen that doesnt understand him but once the white queen wins the batle he becomes an asset to her. So dementia depends on social connections: poor he or she who doesnt know anyone and is not good at pretending.

The same happens with the author of the latest Mad Hatter, Tim Burton: I was reading his book the other day (“The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & other stories”by Tim Burton), and appreciating his imagination and illustration skills when suddenly, it cross my mind that the entire book was about nonsense subjects, completely nonsense, like the stain boy, the appliance boy, main characters of short stories, creepy to say the least. So good for Tim, audiences liked Edward Scissor Hands because if not he would be trapped in a white room, if you know waht I mean…and the same would happen to Thom Yorke….In the end what is necessary is to find people like you, that way you find your own community, even if a small one.

And that is why my friend does not have clarity of thought: he is afraid he will be locked up in a white room, because he hasn’t find is place yet.

I need to find connections fast or Im screwed…

Category : wonderland
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