irreplacability

I'm convinced of the irreplaceability of art, even if I can't say exactly what that comes to. A story --anybody's story--can take your mind off your own problems, and can make you feel less crowded, less weighed down. And any story, I suppose, is art, though not necessarily art of the highest technical accomplishment.

I'm thinking of two things---sensuous prose and a few short films I've recently seen by Alan Bennett.

Sensuous prose: Elizabeth Bowen.

But then, there's also complicated prose, or better rich prose like Plato or Silvan Tomkins.

Last night I was trying to read Republic Book Nine, and, predictably, there was more going on than I recalled....and I couldn't help the thought that this guy doesn't like sex. But I plan to hang on to see what he's up to anyway.....(Though my reading is very very --terribly---undisciplined...)

Alas, books won't replace people, so they are no cure for my loneliness. And right now my eyes are burning, so I cannot continue to type. (Apologies for its incompleteness.)

But one quick thing about Tomkins: I was very surprised by the appeal of his thoughts. There's a concreteness about what he says that is gripping. I suppose the implicit comparison is with other writers on emotion: Nussbaum, Prinz, Ben Ze'ev.........I would say that I was somewhat similarly moved by Fridja. There is a reality in the way Fridja talks about emotions that is not abstract. But I've only read ten or twenty pages of Tomkins. Too soon to really know what's going on.......but perhaps I am also attracted by his consideration of development. (It's too soon to say anything with confidence...)