JOURNAL OF A PSEUDO-INTELLECTUAL YOUNG MAN:

Art – On the Art of writing for the masses!

It is often regarded by people in general, that art- the sublime, transient form of it, is one of the most difficult goals to achieve for someone interested, professionally or “passionately”, in the 'arts'. With that popular notion comes another interesting conundrum – A mass condemnation of ‘the literates’ of any form of art aimed for a group which is (allegedly) less mature, less intelligent and less ‘intellectual’ than the other. The ‘art’ created for ‘them’ ceases to be ‘Good art’.

As someone trying to delve a little artfully into the ‘arts’ myself, I have always been fascinated with the sublime, the transient (Although I cannot say I have not occasionally indulged in the ‘base’ for momentary pleasures) form of art that is in abundance if one knows where to look for it. I was enthralled by the works, the magic realism of Salman Rushdie, mesmerized by the lush contours of a Van Gogh brushstroke, awestruck by the subtle genius of Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali’ where the silent sliding of a bangle down a woman’s arm so vocally signified the crumbling of the entire notion of family and ‘assumed reality’.

I have been inspired by those nuances, I cannot deny that. And as a young man suffering from the all-too-common ailment of intellectual virginity, I probably tried, sometimes consciously, to imitate or simply, to get inspiration from those works to compose others that I could call ‘mine’ and hoped that they would be accepted as ‘Good art’ sometime in the future.

While there are drawbacks and moments of terrible doubt even during a supposedly routine task of ‘imitation’, this banter is not meant to be a commentary or a guide to achieving the perfect imitation, partly because I have not managed to achieve it in the first place.

This piece is about the drawbacks I am presently facing, trying to do something that can be termed as the ‘exact opposite’. Trying to break into a trade that has somehow shed the ‘reputation’ of having ‘no reputation’, thanks to the masters that contributed to its spiritual upliftment during the past century, I had undertaken an attempt to ‘imitate’ (again) the base, the populist form of the popular art that have been accepted and is being accepted day in and day out amongst consumers across race, creed and culture… more precisely, by the ‘less intellectual’ masses.

And it all started after I ‘completed’ something meant to be ‘Good art’; at the end of which, I ran through the entire creation and sighed in satisfaction, ‘It was as I had pictured it to be!’ There had been some complications which arose during its dawn as well, but at this juncture, I must say that I had been able to surpass them with considerable ease.

It was an entirely different case with the populist form.

I struggled harder, had to employ my intellect more to create what would ultimately be regarded as the intellectual masses as ‘base Art’. And I still had not been able to complete it, and there was still a nagging doubt, a small voice that said ‘This cannot, will not be popular’. I had been browsing through, religiously like a heretic, through the populist works that are considered the benchmarks in ‘base Art’, practically to no avail.

The inception of this ‘base Art’ was a fairly easy task. It was ‘ripped off’ as is majority of ‘base Art’ from an external source and tweaked to satisfy the whetting appetites of the target masses. The bedrock was established with such considerable ease that I basked in the glory of assumption, ‘creating base Art is indeed: child’s play!’

But the complications started piling up as the work proceeded in its usual course. Braindead moments, Writer’s blocks galore, Desultory moments of uncertainty later, I was left with no alternative but to write about my quandary, and hope to retrieve some sort of solution from the fountain of words describing my plight.

Now that my task is finally complete, I realize, tending to a wounded ego, how wrong I was in my assumption of the ‘creation’ of ‘base Art’. Even taking a pre-existing form and molding it into something quite different takes a lot of effort and mind-racking on the part of the creators and it is, by no means, simply restricted to what a child with a bad memory might do in an examination!

I admit defeat; and having completed this particular endeavor, resolve not to employ my molding prowess to any project… until a dire need to do the same arises, of course!

[This writing is, by no means, autobiographical. This is written by a young man, around 20, who is too shy to have his own blog and at the same time, wanted to 'reach some people' - however few that might be! So I decided to help him. Once again, I have not written this, and I do not share his views!

Signing Off,

-Jagannath (Jesse)]