Conversations With Campbell (in my mind)

It might be telling that The Fate of the Artist caused me think a whole lot of the role of self-indulgence in art. In a lot of ways, I buy many people's response to Campbell as being somewhat obnoxious in his obsession with his own inner workings, but I also hesitate to dismiss this in-toto as a bad thing. Perhaps Campbell is just more honest than many of us artists-- he's willing to admit that he is always the primary subject of his ponderings.

I think it's also worth considering that people who are very eccentric are faced with uncommon dilemmas regarding existence-- they don't see a lot of prototypical examples of their sort of mind during their formative years, and the subsequent feelings of alienation cause them to appear grandiose, when they are actually simply trying to reconcile the self with the other.

As I said in class, I was happiest when Campbell really copped to this experience, as in the dog-hair bit that we discussed at length. At other times, such as in the pseudo-interview with his daughter, I became frustrated. I felt like, in that, he came closer to indulgence and even exploitation that he did to genuine exploration or reconciliation.

I guess the heart of this for me is the question of how two important elements in art can intersect. On the one had, we have the artist's goals, their exploration and their journey. On the other hand we have the reader's experience. There were definitley times when reading The Fate of the Artist where I said to Eddie Campbell, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME". There were other times when I said to him "Oh, you old dog!". Times like that, I got the sense that what was going on on the page had nothing to do with me. Other times, however, I said to Campbell "I know JUST what you mean". At moments, the things he capture about living inside a particular mind are really remarkable. And maybe that's the point. The book is a chronical of his particular mind. Maybe the maximum delight and discovery for the reader comes from reading with openness, and having no expectation. I think that's ok, every once in a while.