ART & ORGANISM 2020
notes
Last week, February 11, these were IDEAS THAT STOOD OUT FOR YOU (from end-of-class check-in mind-maps):
As you burrow into, (maybe even wallow in) scholarship for your papers. & reflecting on my enjoyment of Saturday’s presentations, I worried that some of you might try TOO hard to make your papers complete. Then I thought of Kenko (The “follow the brush” guy from 14th century Japan – a good spokesman for spontaneity and free-association creativity). & I fished this quote out for you:
“In everything, no matter what it may be, uniformity is undesirable. Leaving something incomplete makes it interesting, and gives one the feeling that there is room for growth. Someone once told me, “Even when building the imperial palace, they always leave one place unfinished.” In both Buddhist and Confucian writings of the philosophers of former times, there are also many missing chapters.” ― Yoshida Kenkō, Essays in Idleness
As a scholar you may be comforted by identifying the unanswered (or unanswerable) questions and letting your readers know that you have the wisdom to know what you do not know.
AND we need not always agree (““If you must take care that your opinions do not differ from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.” )