I've always thought that art can change the world. That movies can have that much of an impact on people the world can shift.
But then I read this passage from Tarkovsky and I have to admit it has changed my mind.
“It is obvious that art cannot teach anyone anything, since in four thousand years humanity has learnt nothing at all. We should long ago have become angels had we been capable of paying attention to the experience of art, and allowing ourselves to be changed in accordance with the ideals it expresses. Art only has the capacity, through shock and catharsis, to make the human soul receptive to good. It’s ridiculous to imagine that people can be taught to be good. Art can only give food – a jolt – the occasion – for psychical experience.”
― Andrei Tarkovsky
This is not a cynical thought because I do believe that art can make an impact on our suffering but...I think...it's a salve to our open flesh wounds.
Life is just so fucking hard, such a struggle, that art is like healing ointment. It gives us relief. For a moment it heals some of our open pus wounds. The different mediums of art have many ways of aiding us. Stories can remind us that we aren't alone in our suffering. Paintings remind us of the beauty that surrounds us if we choose to perceive it that way (think of Starry Night). Photography makes the ordinary extraordinary (a common NY pigeon is suddenly viewed like a Brazillian rainforest parrot). Within seconds music can stir up emotions we need to feel but have kept buried. A poem brings order to the seemingly chaotic world we are trying to live in.
Art gives us relief from the daily hammering of being a human. Most of the time It's fucking dreadful to be alive. Art can do what being loved can do. It gives us a respite to the dread. Now I am not complaining. I love the suffering. I do. This is how I've grown. I know my spirit needs it. I'm amazed at how much I will happily not push my soul to evolve...so the suffering is required but it's also an amazing gift, this art, that humans discovered way back to give ourselves solace. Creating art is the way to lick our own wounds.
Humans have to create art because it is the best way to proactively give ourselves comfort. I create and in those moments that I'm creating I have relief from my own pain. And when I experience art it also gives me relief from my pain.
Now you could say, "Well, Joy, that is a form of changing the world." Perhaps it is but not in the way that I've been thinking about it. I was thinking about it in a much larger, grandiose way and that was not accurate. Or at least it wasn't working for me.
I now think of art and its effect on people in a much smaller, individual way.
I'm wondering if this new perspective will change what and how I write? I'll find out.