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7/31/2019 Art, Sartre and Existence
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A provocation...
The only way to impose meaning
on to existence is through art.
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What would the text argue?
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Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre is known as one of the most important
Existentialphilosophers. While he didnt create Existentialism, he
was the one thatwas responsible for shaping it and expressing it in
a form that became
popular. This was partly because Sartre was a novelist and play
write aswell as a philosopher.
Ford quotes Sartre a lot in interviews and essays. This is one
of thereasons we can know that Ford is interested in Existential
thought (thetype of thought that is interested in the fundamental
unknowability of theworld). And so what Sartre says has a lot of
bearing on Fords work.
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Sartre has said...
To name something is to take it out of the well of theunmediated
and bring it up to the level of notice.
Unmediated: not mediated: not communicated or transformed byan
intervening agency.e.g. photoshopped images have made people aware
that a digitalphotograph is not necessarily an unmediated depiction
of reality
Also, think about what it is to name something.This is really
good practise for the process of unpacking a topic.
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I would argue...
That what both Jackie and Earl do in their respective stories,
is give a nameto their experiences. They lift them out of the
drifting chaos of their lived lives,and bring them into the realm
of notice; the realm of significance.
It is this choice to define the moment, to give the experience a
frame, thatallows the moment to become meaningful. Previously, it
simply existed, coldand empty with the rest of existence. By naming
it, by framing it, by telling it,meaning is imposed on the thing
that was previously chaotic. This is thepower of story, and beyond
that, the power of art. Art provides a frame forexistence, which
allows us to read it, to understand it, to find meaning in it.
This is why the story provides consolation - it doesnt change
anything, itdoesnt make anything better, but it at least can
console us by giving somemeaning to existence.
