ILLUMINATIONS
(WITH THANKS TO ALEX)
DEFENDING OUR HUMANITY
Illumination,
lighting the darkness, lighting the night,
or the Enlightenment
lighting our souls,
illuminating our minds,
defining new laws
defining new freedoms.
I was with a friend the other night.
We spoke of ideas,
of being in opposition to the status quo,
and we spoke of refusing to do things, to participate, to discuss,
to not create on principal,
knowing that to engage would entail unwanted, ungraceful compromises,
knowing that to engage would offer seductive influence,
perhaps even wealth and modest fame
but at the cost of disgracing one’s soul with foul moral choices,
choices that change us indelibly
leaving in the wake of one’s life
a slurry of broken personal promises, tattered dreams
leaving illusions but little illumination.
THE CENTRALITY OF ARTS
This was discussed:
that we may be enlightened
or at least our dark journeys may be illuminated
by artists, writers, poets, musicians
and occasionally the luminescent man or woman
who becomes our leaders until they are corrupted, compromised or killed.
For me there is a significant list of those who have shown me ways to live,
to see, to listen, to care, to love, to be curious, to enquire, and to learn to resist,
to say ‘no’, to turn down the invitation, to mistrust the gatekeeper,
to accept that if I don’t conform,
don’t accept the ways of our political and corporate masters,
I will continue to be penalised.
In the west we are fortunate that we suffer only minor penalties
as the powers-that-be mostly leave us to stew in our aloneness,
in our unnoticed rebellions, in our ignored antagonism,
in our attempts to disseminate what we know and care about.
We are not shot in the back of the head,
we are not falsely imprisoned,
our studios are not wreaker-balled out of existence by arbitrary authorities.
In the west we are fortunate
that we are simply ignored, disregarded,
forgotten before we were remembered
as if we had only a single birthday candle to illuminate our way.
ARTISTS ILLUMINATE OUR LIVES
This is about the status-quo being frightened of truth-seeking dialogues,
of complexity, of kind and generous caring for others,
caring for the earth and for our children’s futures.
Our creativity, our art shines what light we may have
on the realities behind their smoke and mirrors,
by us implying that at the heart of democracy is plurality:
that bare-knuckled confrontation of difficult thoughts in the marketplace of ideas.
But artists are dangerous as they don’t at first approach the calculating minds,
the accountant’s bottom lines, the oil magnate’s investments,
or even any question of wealth
other than the wealth of ideas, culture and beauty,
those implications of our common humanity
(caring, kindness, knowledge and love)
(grace, curiosity and determination)
artfully exuding from paintings, poetry and music.
I have never met, but I have spoken with Leonardo;
and although I have never spoken with Camus, I have read his words,
and I have been gifted a letter from John Berger,
but I have never sat with him and read to him a line of two from my words,
and I have sat for hours with Martin Luther King,
but spoke not a word as I listened in wonder,
and I thank them all for the sparks that have lit my path.
That illumination is the role of art in our lives.
Please have a look at my new book, as relevant to writers, poets, performers, and artists of all media and skills, as it is to photographers and filmmakers.
A REVIEW
Speaking of Illuminations
I watched a Chinese film called RETURN TO DUST on Curzon Home Cinema.
Written and directed by Li Ruijun, it is one of the finest, most preceptive and tender films I have ever seen.
It is a love story; indeed it is a story of love, both tender and heart-breaking.
Set in this century’s rural China, it tells a tale of two impoverished social outcasts in a village surviving in the shadow of a mendacious government, a nearby growing city and a village society riddled by tradition, money concerns, new capitalist greed and outright cruelty. This is the cruelty of an uncaring, self-preoccupied and ignorant peasantry. It is the cruelty that Hannah Arendt referred to during the trial of Adolph Eichmann, as the “banality of evil”.
The central male actor, Wu Renlin, is a peasant farmer drafted into the role which he plays with conviction and subtlety. The main female character, played by Hai Qing, is a TV star and apparently the ex-partner of Wu Renlin. They both performed with down-to-earth realism, being neither heroic nor outstanding in relation to the outside world, and it is in this normality that their humanity glows. Respecting the river, the growing wheat and corn, the wild birds and his loyal donkey are all a part of his caring for the cycles of life.
I watched enthralled as they at first simply accept the other in their family arranged marriage which unburdened each family, with the two thrown together having to make their own way in an unbearably harsh world. Then, incident by incident, they fall in love, deeply, completely and respectfully. It is amour fou, the most profound necessity to be with and a part of the other.
Beat by beat, often in long takes shot with a static camera, each scene was as a lyrical poem, with their lives both joyous and tear filled, slowly evolving before our eyes and ears.
Ironically the Confucian wisdom of the Chinese hierarchy, bent out of shape by their totalitarian state, first banned this award-winning film and then demanded the ending had to be changed. This utterly narrow-minded stupidity does the opposite of what the bureaucrats wished for. The film is an exposition of these two people’s humanity but the clumsy banning from the Chinese streaming services and from being mentioned online accomplished just the opposite, witnessed by our appalled response to these infantile politics. Of course, what we know from the American religious right, the Taliban and the British proto-fascists is that kindness, love, complexity and thoughtfulness is terrifying to them.
I don’t want to explain what the ending was to be and what it now is because it is too precious a film to ruin by discussing the ending before you see it. I recommend that for those who watch the film, afterwards go here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Dust_(film) to read the story of the ending.
This is a film not to be missed; one’s own love will be intensified.