Thoughts on Thursday: How Do Artists and Writers Engage Us to Advance Society?

Summary

How can our stories prompted by our imagination, writing, art and very being in the world be a source of good? 

Question

What connects art and literature? The answer might sound too simple to be true. Imagination. And yet, the answer has never lost its truth. 

This from Australian artist, writer and filmmaker Shaun Tan:  “Being able to exercise your mind to imagine other ways of existing, and being able to get excited about that, to pre-visualize, to feel in advance something hopeful. Facts and logic don’t seem to cut it with humanity. Even fear and crisis don’t afford the proportional response – in the face of slow death we drag our heels and turn inward, we elect false leaders, we make excuses. The real motivation for change has to be positive, being able to imagine things already getting better. Stories have a huge role to play here, given that every significant change that’s ever happened in human society has begun with someone telling a story, for better or worse. As artists and writers, we have a natural bias toward truth and honesty, so our stories can be strong and enduring. Not necessarily right or wrong, but able to advance the imagination towards positive, motivating feelings, to have conceptual enthusiasm, beyond the terror of facts and seemingly insurmountable problems.” 

Question 

How does your art, your writing, your particular way of being in the world advance our human imagination and society? 

Thoughts on Thursday: How Do Artists and Writers Engage Us to Advance Society? written by Diane F. Wyzga in association with Beauty & the Beast Publishing. Photo Almos Bechtold on Unsplash.