FROM THE BOOK
I think every work of art expresses,
more or less purely, more or less subtly,
not feelings & emotions which the artist has,
but feeling & emotions which the artist knows;
his insight into the nature of science,
his picture of vital experience,
physical & emotive & fantastic.
Such knowledge is not expressible in ordinary discourse.
The reason fort his ineffability is not that the ideas to be expressedv
are too high, too spiritual, or too anything else,
but that the forms of feeling &
and the forms of discursive expression are logically incommensurate,
so that any exact concepts of feeling &
emotion cannot be portrayed into the logical form of literal language.
Verbal statement, which is our normal &
most reliable means of communication,
is almost useless for conveying knowledge about the precise character of the affective life.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard, reproduced from The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater and Other Figurative Photographs.
