week 1 3/29

Hi everyone, I'm Quyen. 

The mimetic art forms I participate in the most are art and fiction. I used to do a lot of visual art -- taking drawing, painting, graphic design classes; and I'm also a bookworm. The lecture on monday challenged me to examine how I feel about those forms, how I think I "participate" in them (w.r.t. mimetic exploration), and to articulate what makes a captivating artwork so; what makes an enrapturing story so.

I'm interested in the part of monday's class that discussed "willing suspension of disbelief." I think that mimesis, as an active engagement rather than a passive stance, certainly delves into the willingness of the spectator to participate. But I'm not quite convinced that "suspension of disbelief" is precisely the case. In my mind, listening to the lecture, and thinking about my own personal experiences of art, film, and fiction, it doesn't seem to be simply the case that we agree to forfeit true-to-life realism. i think there may be an additional factor, a recognition of the value of art -- as in we recognize that in order for that x factor of great art to surface, we must allow breaks in true-to-life realism. We allow just enough reality so that the art can operate and produce whatever element it is that makes great art great.

This is just my first musings ... don't hold this to me in the future!