Barthelme on Words
November 22, 2016
Donald Barthelme on words
"The combinatorial agility of words, the exponential generation of meaning once they're allowed to go to bed together, allows the writer to surprise himself, makes art possible, reveals how much of Being we haven't yet encountered."
He continues:
"It could be argued that computers can do this sort of thing for us, with critic-computers monitoring their output. When computers learn how to make jokes, artists will be in serious trouble. But artists will respond in such a way as to make art impossible for the computer. They will redefine art to take into account (that is, to exclude) technology--photography's impact upon painting and painting's brilliant response being a clear and comparatively recent example."
Later:
"Art is a true account of the activity of mind. Because consciousness...is always conscious of something, art thinks ever of the world, cannot not think of the world, could not turn its back on the world even if it wished to."