Brain Food #829: The triangle of reception
The dynamic dance between a work of art, an audience, and a world on fire
Thoughts of the day
I recently finished Annie-B Parson’s The Choreography of Everyday Life, a book of observations on life written by a choreographer, which is an interesting idea in itself, how someone who is specialised in one thing also happens to be good at something else, and when they come together, the two skills produce something entirely unique.
But today I wanted to share one of the ideas she proposes in the book, the triangle of reception:
“I always imagine the experience of reading as this: the book is one point on a triangle, the second point on this triangle is you the reader, and the third point is the current state of the world. And these three points are in a dynamic balance. Meaning, whatever you are reading, you experience it through the lens of your own life, plus the world you are living in; and if that world is on fire, the writing may be rendered tone deaf, benign or especially urgent.”
A piece of work is static, but only as long as it lives in its own vacuumed space. The moment it enters the world, it begins to interact with it: “Even though the text is unchanged, you are different, and the world is different, and the text gracefully allows for these shifts.”
The importance of timing and receptivity both in the world and the reader turn the act of creation into a form of dance, through which we change something by interacting with it, and thus end up being changed ourselves, if we are open enough, and if the timing is right. This is also why returning to a story or idea we already visited in the past might yield an entirely new experience.
If you have made something that has not found an audience, maybe the time for it hasn’t come yet. And for those working on a new creation, overthinking the effect you want it to have might be as futile as trying to predict where the world will head, while being on fire.
Painter Johannes Vermeer died in 1675 and was forgotten by art historians for nearly two centuries, only to be rediscovered in the 19th century by two art critics called Gustav Friedrich Waagen and Théophile Thoré-Bürger. Sometimes, what one creates does not need to resonate with the masses, but only with the right handful of people.
Today, Vermeer is recognised as one of the greatest Dutch masters, due to his depiction of ordinary, middle-class living; a true ambassador of the choreography of everyday life.
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