Words.

Because this is also a personal blog outside of my classes and there may or may not be followers actually interested in my life, this will be an all-text post under the break. Sorry there is no photo, but you can read (if you so choose) about my reaction and class discussion of an excerpt from the "Surrealist Manifesto."

"Everything is valid!"

Accepting this is ultimately how one becomes great. Greatness cannot be determined by the standards of someone else. To be great to the world is to be great to one's self.
In class, we were divided. One-half of the room were analytical thinkers, confused by the "jargon" of the piece. The other half, or at least what I chanced to voice and several nodded in agreement, seemed to understand the writing.
The "Surrealist Manifesto" was written as a description of the art of surrealism, and the section we were given was on composition and poetry. And as any writer does, the author (who I don't know, but can only assume is the same André Breton who had written "Surrealist Manifesto" in the early 1900s) stuck to his style. The entire piece was written in surrealist ways, written by thought, shaped by feeling, meaning and metaphor.
And I understood it.
I write to free my feelings, so I understood the random descriptions of seemingly irrelevant issues.
It made sense to me.
So I was confused (and, I admit, a bit amused) when my peers did not understand, and were even frustrated by it.
To each his own, I suppose.
Anyway, the lesson I derived from the entire piece was simply a reassurance. I can and should trust myself when creating art, or photographs, or words, or stories. All of these things, if done with a passion and without regard for the interest of others, will be produced from my soul and therefore a creation of mine.
Something I made.
For me.
For my own, personal enjoyment.
And you know what?
To Hell with the rest of them.
Someone will like it.
Maybe it will be great.
Who gets to decide?
Art is art.
Everything is valid.

~JD