Ann Klefstad
Posts:
48
From:
Duluth
Registered:
Feb 25, 2003
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Re: Dialogue
Posted:
Feb 25, 2003 4:28 PM
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Ok, ok, this has all been happening and I've been mum. Wanting to hear where it all goes. First--is some art good and some bad? Sure. and Coyote's right, kids can tell about some of it. Art works in some ways through perceptual knowledge we all have. But sometimes there is reason to say a work is wonderful because of ideas it contains that don't rest on hardwiring.
Next--cultural heritages. Like other writers to this thread, I'm of Norwegian heritage. This is an odd nationality: Norwegians were among the poorest people in Europe for a long time, only 5 percent of the land is arable there, they eat a lot of fish, they had no nobility, thy are very egalitarian, they tend to be very patriotic, at least they were in my grandparents' days (they were the ones to come to this country) in part because they had just recently (1905) won their independence from Denmark. They had been colonial subjects, of a kind. There was a huge "back to authentic Norse culture" thing in the first half of this century because of this, not so different from Azatlan, you know, Coyote. But another thing about Norwegians--the country's always been too crowded; the people have always been boat people, venturing out to all sorts of places, harsh ones, ones that already belonged to other people, empty ones that no one else could find or no one else wanted. We've always been in diaspora, always been wanderers, exiles, immigrants. My great uncle died in the Yucatan of liver cancer, leaving behind a Mayan wife and 3 kids. And we assimilate pretty good, we've had a couple thousand years of practice. So "cultural heritage" for us is weird--it's desperately important, but it's also something that gets dumped alot in the (historically) pretty tough struggle not to starve or get killed by the locals or drown or stumble over about a thousand other ways to go down. It's not all lefse, people. (Actually, lefse is a sign of our historic povery. Almost no one had enough money or fuel to bake bread in an actual oven. Most farm houses in Norway, for an awfully long time, just had the open hearth to cook on, so flat breads made from barley, oats, rye, or potatoes--cause mostly the growing season is too short for wheat--are the national breads. Kind of like that tortilla thing of yours, Coyote)
So it's an interesting cultural heritage, historically, but part of it is a culture of assimilation. Norwegians fought for the Byzantine emperors in Constantinople for hundreds of years, and that's why it's the only cuisine in Europe to use cardamom, a Middle Eastern spice. And we've been pretty successful in America because of that long history of making a go of exile, assimilating when we had to, being canny about playing by others' rules but not losing our souls. It's an old story for Norwegians. So sometimes we can seem just white--transparent, translucent to the mainstream around us--but paradoxically that is our heritage.
Long rave, but it's surprising how few people know about this stuff--
On this discussion as well--artistic quality? Or qualities? Click into the discussion on mnartists articles by using the links at the ends of reviews etc on the front page. Let's start weaving a tapestry of ideas that includes the art being done now, as well as the gorgeous haystacks and starry nights of the past.
And hey--field trips? Include me in, ok? What's been scheduled?
AK
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