Maybe we should all be making money. The purpose of life is to make money. No, the purpose of life is to survive. Here, in the United States, survival can be and should be ensured for all. We are, after all, the wealthiest country in the history of civilization. The question then becomes: If survival is ensured, what is the purpose of life? Shall we grow flowers and have flower-growing contests throughout our days? Shall we eat cherries all day? I would submit, not defend, that among other things we should entertain. High art, low art, any art is essentially a form of entertainment.
About Tim Ruane
Tim Ruane is an artist and writer. He is a graduate of Georgetown University, where he studied English and art, and has worked as a chief copy editor in the editorial department of The Washington Post, where he has also worked as a freelance photographer. He has written hundreds of poems, two novels a number of short stories. His photographs have been published by The Washington Post, Simon & Schuster and The Good Men Project. He has shown his photographs at Potomac MD Public Library and is scheduled to be published in ShareArt LA, Circumfleks Magazine and Splinter Literary Journal. He will have an exhibition of his photographs in September at the offices of Prudential FedRealty in Washington D.C. Mr. Ruane lives and works in Garrett Park MD, just outside Washington D.C. USA.
Have you ever read the history of boredom by Soren Kierkegaard? It’s part of either/or I. He suggests that the funding of the arts would be the best way to get danmark out of its economic troubles. It’s also one joke after the next.
Ha, have never read Kierkegaard. He is a must read for me before I transcend off to Never Never Land. “The History of Boredom”–fantastic and marvelous.
Frank Zappa, in the liner notes of his sophisticated, difficult, complex contemporary orchestral/digital music album “The Perfect Stranger” (conducted by Pierre Boulez) wrote that his music was for entertainment and amusement and “should not be confused with any other form of artistic expression.”
That’s not to take themselves too seriously, and not to be boring – in my opinion.
Ah, wonderful. I had a music teacher who insisted that Zappa was a super genius and the best of all in the rock era.