Art: and the Artists Who Make It

We’re more than matter. The material universe is not the extent of the universe that man inhabits and that he is capable of seeing and thinking about. But, it is the place he sees and moves around in and it takes up a lot of his attention. Good works of art bring the world of the mind, the world of moral choice and consequence, the world of beauty, into the physical world in a way that makes them obvious enough to be contemplated, making it possible for man to look out and above the physical into the larger and more important universe.

Sense: This Picture Makes More Than You Thought

I got three great responses to my call last week to make sense of a certain meme. Today, I’ll take up those responses and talk about “making sense” itself.

All three of my worthy commenters mentioned an element of the picture I hadn’t noticed before writing last week’s post; a feature of the image which saddened me a little because it seemed to ruin the absurdity. Namely, that Darth Vader is pouring sea water from a water filter into another bottle.

Exhibit A: the image in question.

Sequels: Terminator 2 (2 of 2)

Read part 1.

Something like a movie is capable of two things. It can either reflect on and attempt to grasp the truth of things in a deeper sense (things like humanity, courage, love; the big stuff), or it can reflect on the state of things as we find them – truth in a limited sense.

The first Terminator did the first, with some of the second thrown in. The struggle against relentless forces and man’s potential destruction by the work of his own hands, while perhaps not timeless themes, are at least themes that encompass all of time; Ditzy 80’s chicks, insecure waitresses, and killer robots have more to do with current issues.

Wait! Instead of shooting him,
get him to volunteer at the home for boys!
Once he sees what lovable scamps human kids are,
slaughtering us all will simply no longer compute!