As a dichotomy, tools matter and tools don’t matter at the same time. Give a great photographer a cheap disposable film camera you can still buy at the drug store (I love ‘em, actually) and you’re likely going to get something interesting. Give my neighbor a camera bag filled with expensive gear, and you’re going to get backlit cat photos on the windowsill…and a bag full of expensive gear.
Endless pursuit of the perfect tool with a perfected set of skills can get in the way of actually doing good work. Make something, and your skills will automatically improve simply by using them. Constant evaluation of artistic processes other people may have employed can similarly impede our ability to actually see what those artists are trying to do creatively.
The thing about artwork is that while expertise can add meaningful substance to dialogue, even the uninitiated can be moved to feel something or get engaged. Art can influence us even if we’re not an expert. This is different than opinions about science or engineering or foreign policy, where uninformed declarations can actually be counter-productive. I don’t want to listen to an uninformed opinion about whether bridges should be inspected for safety. I want to be able to count on experts who can properly evaluate the safety of bridges.
A culture built of people invested in creative enterprise is a culture that cares about building connections. Creative expressions almost always reach out. By its very nature art does not insulate itself from interaction; it pursues interaction. In times like these, when identity politics and political polarization press our self-interested faces into hand-held screens, the value of shared experiences becomes not simply a luxury, but a campfire on a bitterly cold night.
Idealists may think that art in its various forms can function as remedy for chaos and pain. The rise of Dada in the early part of the 20th century suggests otherwise. The peril here is that when ideologues try to use creative work as a mechanism for political or social coercion, the work instantly corrupts itself. Political forces have always used creative enterprise as a means of influence, but in its most trenchant expressions, art speaks for itself as a reaction to the world much more evocatively than when it’s wielded as an instrument of power.
No matter how big the movie, the stage play, the broadcast, or book release, work is always ephemeral, like life itself. The play’s the thing precisely because the action of life only struts and frets for a moment upon the stage. It’s like a love affair; it’s like a perfectly prepared meal; it’s like a long-planned vacation, or even time spent growing up in one’s family home. The feelings may run deep, but the only thing that lasts are shared memories.
Language matters. When we use it without precision, we sow seeds of misunderstanding, which ultimately inculcates friction. When what we mean gets diluted by imprecision often enough, we begin to lose firm grasps on what each other deeply believes.
Even as I try to selectively calibrate my attention and interests to suit time and energy, the compelling pull of interesting materials tempts me like a rodent that stumbles upon a bag of shelled walnuts. Unable to resist, the hapless creature cannot help but gobble up one more, often resulting in a bellyache.
Grammar should be thought of as a series of rules that enable ideas to exist with as minimal impediment as possible. Notice that I’m not asserting that grammar should insure proper or correct usage; that would be an entirely subjective assertion. Reading dialogue, slang, or other forms of vernacular require deep understanding of grammar so that the reader can keep track of what’s being said. Put another way, the most powerful way to break a rule is for the breaker to fully understand what is being broken in the first place. Without understanding how things work, excellence can only happen by accident.
Talent alone is like simply having access to cool tools: access without practice does not independently confer greatness. Discipline and repeated effort are much more vital, and those are traits that most people are unwilling to invest in adequate measure to rise above the masses.