Ooh, this video is so cool! I love all the different settings.
"The struggle to understand them is what makes them meaningful to me." I definitely think that's part of it... somehow the trying to understand creates more meaning for us. Perhaps artists, by being ambiguous, give us the experience of finding out what they meant, thus giving us more understanding of it, not just unthinking agreement.
I think another thing about things you don't understand: perhaps there really is more substance to them, or at least from your frame of reference. If they make sense already, then there's less for you to learn from. If something doesn't make sense, you know that understanding it will be adding to your knowledge.
That is to say... I don't think that confusing things are necessarily more meaningful, because if that was so, as soon as you understood them, they'd cease to be confusing, and then supposedly they would have to lose their meaning as well.
I don't think poetry's appeal lies in its ambiguity per se. Analogy: people can write in chat short-hand, that I can't automatically understand. But that doesn't make me think it's more important. I think... poetry is more purposeful. There's more thought involved in every individual word. That - saying what you mean in the purest way possible - can make it less accessible to the reader. And less enjoyable once it's understood, I think.
This comment is the reason I posted your video for you. ;P
"Perhaps artists, by being ambiguous, give us the experience of finding out what they meant, thus giving us more understanding of it, not just unthinking agreement."
I agree with Wednesday here. And you. When we are "told" things . . . we in a sense "know" it, but we do not understand it. To understand it . . . I think almost requires a thought process. "understand" implies its own history of thinking about it.
I think . . . that what part of this may be . . . The gospel is hard to understand, confusing, sometimes incomprehensible. it is also the most profoundly important thing in the world.
I am a fan of this different settings thing.
"I . . . know when something is meaningful or not" intuition for the win! By the way: Your face is cool. Literally.
"This comment is the reason I posted your video for you. " That's what I did yesterday :P
Monday, I should talk to you more about that video, from the horses mouth, so to speak (is that a thing? do people say that?).
Edit to my comment: I said, "That - saying what you mean in the purest way possible - can make it less accessible to the reader. And less enjoyable once it's understood, I think." But I meant /more/ enjoyable.
Thursday... From the horse's mouth means that someone said it themselves. It doesn't mean face-to-face. :)
A Year Of Questions is a project begun on March 22, 2010, by seven teens who want to be better at asking questions and articulating answers. This blog exists to make it easier to discuss these questions (because a 500 character limit on YouTube comments is rather limiting). Enjoy!
4 comments:
Ooh, this video is so cool! I love all the different settings.
"The struggle to understand them is what makes them meaningful to me." I definitely think that's part of it... somehow the trying to understand creates more meaning for us. Perhaps artists, by being ambiguous, give us the experience of finding out what they meant, thus giving us more understanding of it, not just unthinking agreement.
I think another thing about things you don't understand: perhaps there really is more substance to them, or at least from your frame of reference. If they make sense already, then there's less for you to learn from. If something doesn't make sense, you know that understanding it will be adding to your knowledge.
That is to say... I don't think that confusing things are necessarily more meaningful, because if that was so, as soon as you understood them, they'd cease to be confusing, and then supposedly they would have to lose their meaning as well.
I don't think poetry's appeal lies in its ambiguity per se. Analogy: people can write in chat short-hand, that I can't automatically understand. But that doesn't make me think it's more important. I think... poetry is more purposeful. There's more thought involved in every individual word. That - saying what you mean in the purest way possible - can make it less accessible to the reader. And less enjoyable once it's understood, I think.
This comment is the reason I posted your video for you. ;P
Yes, yes it was Blaise Pascal.
"Perhaps artists, by being ambiguous, give us the experience of finding out what they meant, thus giving us more understanding of it, not just unthinking agreement."
I agree with Wednesday here. And you. When we are "told" things . . . we in a sense "know" it, but we do not understand it. To understand it . . . I think almost requires a thought process. "understand" implies its own history of thinking about it.
I think . . . that what part of this may be . . . The gospel is hard to understand, confusing, sometimes incomprehensible. it is also the most profoundly important thing in the world.
I am a fan of this different settings thing.
"I . . . know when something is meaningful or not" intuition for the win!
By the way: Your face is cool. Literally.
"This comment is the reason I posted your video for you. " That's what I did yesterday :P
Monday, I should talk to you more about that video, from the horses mouth, so to speak (is that a thing? do people say that?).
-Thursday.
Edit to my comment:
I said, "That - saying what you mean in the purest way possible - can make it less accessible to the reader. And less enjoyable once it's understood, I think." But I meant /more/ enjoyable.
Thursday... From the horse's mouth means that someone said it themselves. It doesn't mean face-to-face. :)
Yes, that's what I meant. Talk to Monday myself. Yeah.
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