In a recent post at his blog Anecdotal Evidence, Patrick Kurp observes that the past is a much bigger place than the present, so it follows that most worthwhile books were published not last week but some time in the previous three millennia. –via The Reading Experience
I totally agree with Patrick Kurp and hold that the same is true for art, films etcetera. I used to call the practice of only dealing with the contemporary the dictatorship of the now and have abandoned it somewhere in the early 1990s. Each man is the bibliographer of his own life and instead of a relentless neophilia, one should look for sensibilities which are one’s own and which may be found in the present, but just as much in the past.
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I agree with what you say here “Each man is the bibliographer of his own life and instead of relentless neophilia, one should look for sensibilities….”
Thanks for the link to The Reading Experience – I did read it and it gave good fodder for thought. What I value in reading and in the arts in general is coming up against sensibilities “not my own”, which prompt me to turn over my preconceptions and perhaps erroneous conclusions arrived at.
I think much of what is established as “canon” is materiel that is considered to embody the most useful and clear information about past experiences and which reveal a ‘truth’ we can percieve in our own contemporary experiences. I must think on this today while doing mundane chores:-)
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