{"id":2123,"date":"2014-02-13T13:40:24","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T19:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=2123"},"modified":"2014-02-13T13:40:24","modified_gmt":"2014-02-13T19:40:24","slug":"craft-art-secrecy-sharing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/?p=2123","title":{"rendered":"Craft, Art, Secrecy, Sharing"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a sensible article about Craft and Art\u00a0 by Theodora Goss<\/a>\u00a0 on the SFWA website.\u00a0\u00a0 Goss, an experienced creative writing teacher, has a somewhat different angle on it than I do, but we see both pretty much the same way.\u00a0\u00a0 My way of saying it:\u00a0 Craft makes art possible.\u00a0\u00a0 Art gives craft life.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 But in the story I’m working on now,\u00a0 which happens to be partly about craft (in knitting) and art (ditto) there’s something more I believe is important.<\/p>\n

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In history,\u00a0 craft guilds often kept secrets, especially from outsiders.\u00a0\u00a0 Their secret knowledge–how to get a brilliant red in wool, how to join thin pieces of wood to make a box stronger, how to make paper–had value–it ensured their control of a body of knowledge, and hence the ability to control the profit from that knowledge.\u00a0\u00a0 Individuals might also keep their secrets–painters had individual, sometimes secretly held ways of mixing particular pigments, using varnishes, etc.\u00a0 Past the age of guilds, both individuals and corporations thrived by holding secrets close, preventing others from copying the work that made their profit.\u00a0\u00a0 And all those secrets hidden…are things that can be learned by copying, by spying, or–if the inventer chooses–can be taught directly to someone else.\u00a0\u00a0 In other words, all those secrets belong in the realm of craft, not art.\u00a0 Craft is both knowledge and skill…but knowledge is the deepest root of it.<\/p>\n

Goss says art cannot be taught, only craft.\u00a0\u00a0 I think she’s right.\u00a0\u00a0 Art is part of the individual…if someone with the craft extends the work to art, then that extension comes from something the individual puts into it.\u00a0 What is that “something?”\u00a0\u00a0 Now we’re on shaky ground,\u00a0 one foot on theology and one foot on psychology.\u00a0\u00a0 Because it’s something mental\/spiritual\/psychological in the individual that results in art.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s not craft or lack of it.\u00a0 It’s not a profit motive or lack of it…artists and writers have produced brilliant work–unquestionably art–for money (and lots of it.)\u00a0\u00a0 It’s in the individual.<\/p>\n

Goss comes close, I think, in this sentence:\u00a0 “Both Woolf and Orwell make stylistic choices, write the way they write, because of what they\u2019re focusing on, because of their convictions about reality.” \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Narrowing that down, I would say that the stylistic choices are not what distinguishes art from the craft behind it: many people can learn to word-wrangle very well.\u00a0\u00a0 The art is elsewhere:\u00a0 it arises because “their convictions about reality” suffuse their writing.\u00a0\u00a0 And here we go farther into the shaky bog, hoping not to sink.\u00a0 Because every writer has convictions about reality, and those convictions do affect the writing.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet not all writers produce art as well as craft.<\/p>\n

We can start by admitting that imperfect craft–shoddy workmanship–cannot produce art.\u00a0\u00a0 (Or, “not good<\/em> art” if you’re feeling generous. )\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s easy to tell why some paintings\/sculptures\/musical works\/written works do not achieve the status of art…they lack too much craft.<\/p>\n

What about the others, the competent-in-craft writers whose books may be enjoyable on a dull afternoon, but, in the long run, migrate to the shelves you don’t reach often, and are finally discarded for lack of storage space?\u00a0\u00a0 You can re-read them a few times without wincing.\u00a0 There’s nothing specifically wrong with them.\u00a0 But they don’t grab your mind and heart and bring you back again and again.<\/p>\n

You don’t, in other words, connect…with what?\u00a0 The book?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 The characters?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 And behind the book and the characters, the writer.\u00a0 Aha! Yes…the writer has managed to pour enough of the writer’s own heart (not just mind) and passion (not just thoughts, but feelings) about the characters, the place, the events being written, into the book that you are emotionally moved, not just once, but repeatedly.<\/p>\n

The writer is not just demonstrating the techniques of good writing–as a craftsperson always does–but as an artist shares a vision, using every technique of craft to help you, the reader, participate in that vision.\u00a0 The story comes alive in your mind, and you become a co-creator as read, your entire brain working to build up the vision the writer had first, and gave you the clues to generate.<\/p>\n

As readers, we do that with any text, to some extent:\u00a0 “He bit into the apple.”\u00a0 Those who have bitten into an apple will respond by imagining the feel, the amount of resistance to his teeth, the slight graininess of the flesh, the apple being either juicy or mushy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We interpret in the light of our own experience; we “see” and “hear” at lease some of what’s written.\u00a0\u00a0 The better the craft of writing, the more vividly meaning is conveyed, the easier it is to understand.\u00a0 But many texts, in fiction as well as nonfiction, offer a shallow experience–refreshing as wading in a cool stream on a hot day, yet nothing like swimming in the ocean.\u00a0\u00a0 The surface, the shallow depth, is well-conveyed–concrete details, pleasantly varied prose.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the writer remains concealed.\u00a0\u00a0 Anyone with sufficient craft can write “He bit into the apple.”\u00a0\u00a0 Anyone can write “The steak sizzled.”\u00a0\u00a0 Anyone with sufficient craft can write entire, perfectly correct, competent, and interesting\u00a0 paragraph after paragraph about anything without revealing anything much about the writer.<\/p>\n

Art requires revealing\u00a0 the artist’s unique perspective…leaving the far safer concealment of the craftsman for the risks of exposure.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Saying not what is expected, known, taught as part of the craft, but what comes from the artist’s own deepest beliefs and longings.\u00a0\u00a0 It cannot be taught, because it’s not a technique or a trick or a method.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s the individual taking the risk of sharing the most dangerous thing–the truth of the artist’s self–with those the artist does not know–may never know–and who may reject everything that artist is.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All a teacher can do is provide a space, permission, for a student whose craft has developed to go beyond craft alone.<\/p>\n

In music,\u00a0 the good teachers–like our choir director–tell students “Don’t just sing\/play the notes.\u00a0\u00a0 Express the music. ”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For someone still struggling with the craft, this is intimidating…if you have no “musical idea” about the music other than “too many notes too fast” and “OMG, there’s a key change–what–?”\u00a0 you cannot express the music.\u00a0\u00a0 You can, at best, sing the notes.\u00a0 But it isn’t music–it is not the art of music–until you go beyond, into the music itself, feeling it, reacting to it, and then singing (or playing) with everything you know, everything you feel, without protecting yourself, risking whatever may come to sing or play as if you were the music.\u00a0\u00a0 Strong voice or weak, great skill with an instrument or mediocre skill…it will produce music only if you use all of it, freely, without trying to hide your imperfections.<\/p>\n

The same is true, in a different craft, with writing.\u00a0\u00a0 First comes craft.\u00a0 Then–with the courage to risk–comes whatever art is in you.\u00a0\u00a0 Fear stifles it.\u00a0 Fear that your art isn’t that big (and it may not be), fear of ridicule or disapproval or actual punishment, fear of failure.\u00a0\u00a0 And yet…giving the trained talent, the talent with craft behind it, free rein….letting it run wild where it will and devil take the consequences…is the only possible chance you have to go from craft to art.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thinking “This will be my shift from craft to art” doesn’t work (in my experience)…thinking of the music itself, the story itself, putting aside thoughts of its audience to give everything<\/em> to the art….is what may<\/em> produce art.\u00a0 (And if not, you’ve got one heckuva piece of excellent craftsmanship.\u00a0\u00a0 Which is nothing to be ashamed of–in fact, something to be proud of.)<\/p>\n

Craft can be taught.\u00a0\u00a0 Art cannot; it can only be recognized.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Craft has “secrets,” techniques and materials that masters of the craft can choose to keep secret or share.\u00a0\u00a0 Art has no secret…and that is<\/em> its secret.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a sensible article about Craft and Art\u00a0 by Theodora Goss\u00a0 on the SFWA website.\u00a0\u00a0 Goss, an experienced creative writing teacher, has a somewhat different angle on it than I do, but we see both pretty much the same way.\u00a0\u00a0 My way of saying it:\u00a0 Craft makes art possible.\u00a0\u00a0 Art gives craft life.\u00a0\u00a0 But in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[62],"class_list":["post-2123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-craft","tag-craft-of-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2124,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2123\/revisions\/2124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}