The difficult thing in art is to make intelligent use of the spontaneous manifestations that arise during the process, inserting them into the predefined structure without harming the whole. Often, the highest peaks of a work are the result of unexpected flashes of light that the author knew how to take advantage of. The whole, it is true, lacks order; and order is not made from a spark that suddenly springs up in the spirit. But the artist, if surprised by the adventitious idea, will do very well to transfer this surprise effect to his work. Art will win.
Category: Notes
Ancient Philosophers…
Chamfort lines:
Ce que j’admire dans les anciens philosophes, c’est le désir de conformer leurs moeurs à leurs écrits : c’est ce que l’on remarque dans Platon, Théophraste et plusieurs autres. La morale-pratique était si bien la partie essentielle de leur philosophie, que plusieurs furent mis à la tête des écoles, sans avoir rien écrit : tels que Xénocrate, Polémon, Xentippe, etc. Socrate, sans avoir donné un seul ouvrage et sans avoir étudié aucune autre science que la morale, n’en fut pas moins le premier philosophe de son siècle.
Ah, ancient philosophers! Chamfort would be very sad to note the complete break with reality which, if it did not extinguish them in the West, made their appearance exceedingly difficult. Philosophy is doing today with “practical morality” what it does with all other themes: it is transforming it into an abstraction; it is wasting it as the foundation of a logical construction that is detached from the concrete. It is, in fact, the opposite movement. For this reason, it could not even be attributed to error; what happened was an absolute deviation of purpose. The désir of which Chamfort speaks no longer pulsates in the so-called Western philosophers who, certainly, would never see in a Socrates a similar one.
Taking Life Too Seriously
Says Chamfort:
Le théâtre tragique a le grand inconvénient moral de mettre trop d’importance à la vie et à la mort.
It is true… There is no denying that taking life too seriously brings numerous drawbacks, starting with the inevitable anguish. By giving too much importance to life and death and realizing that both are largely beyond its control, the spirit will experience despair. But one thing should be noted: emphasis is necessary for the theater to move; the message of a play will never have the same effect if it is devoid of dramatic exaggeration. To say with Nelson Rodrigues: fiction, in order to purify, needs to be atrocious. But perhaps these inconveniences are necessary not only for the theater, but for life itself, since in complete indifference man will always remain exactly where he is.
An Inexplicable Feeling of Duty Haunts Me…
An inexplicable feeling of duty haunts me for a long time and demands me to portray the drama of Dom Pedro II. In my mind, I have already done it in verses, plays, movie scripts… But, in truth, I have done it because I cannot get rid of this obsession. Why? It is funny that, as usual, whenever I finally decide to execute the task, dozens of reasons make me abandon it. And the image of this man keeps coming to my mind while listening to Mozart’s Requiem. Seneca, Socrates and many others whose unjust end is obvious to my eyes do not inspire a similar feeling. It is Pedro II, and it has to be him for some reason. I do not know what to say…