To convey to our imagination an abiding sense of the world’s goodness and givenness, artists require a vocabulary capable of such representation. Many of the conventional aesthetic resources of the contemporary arts are well suited to expressing anxiety, alienation, chaos and violence, but are not as capable of evoking innocence, simple purity, or quiet delight. (I’m more and more convinced that the omnipresence of relentless rhythm sections, even in love songs, is an expression of the mechanistic and brutish presuppositions of a culture convinced that all life forms are the end-result of a mindlessly competitive process of mere survival.)
–Ken Myers
“From Heavenly Harmony” in Touchstone Nov/Dec 2014
It’s all a balance, isn’t it? Some rhythm is needed or else it’s all chaos. Relentless rhythm has the feeling of a frenetic entrapment that can’t be escaped. Perhaps turning to nature and expressions of the natural world aid in evoking delight and innocence.
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So many times, we Christians have let the ‘world’ take over art and that’s so wrong. God, the Great Creator, is the ultimate artist and takes pleasure in the work of our hands but only when it honors Him.
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I see you’re on a Rumer Godden run. I haven’t read any of her books yet but I’m keen to try In This House of Brede. Have you read that?
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Yes, Carol, that was the first book by her that I read, many years ago, and I liked it very much, and read the first book of her memoirs soon afterward. Then I had this long break that came to an end when I decided to read Doll’s House with my granddaughter, and that got me going again. 🙂
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