Vertical and Horizontal

When Schools Become 'Nice'

I know the republican school; I studied in it. It was an institution with strict demands, a bleak, unpleasant place that built high walls to keep out the noise from outside. Thirty years of foolish reforms have altered our landscape. The republican school has been replaced by an ‘educational community’ that is horizontal rather than vertical. The curricula have been made easier, the noise from outside has come in, society has come inside the school.

This is a quote from an early interview by French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut commenting on multiculturalism and the riots in France.

Since education is intrinsically part of culture, Finkielkraut's words have even more resonance.

Multiculturalism has obviously failed French culture and education, as it has whatever there is here of Canadian culture.

Picking and choosing what is ‘nice’ horizontally along the multiple cultures has only brought about a smorgasbord of unrelated and watered down cultures. Excellence and mediocrity paraded together, and of course mediocrity won.

Picking and choosing what is ‘nice’ horizontally in schools has introduced an ‘educated’ population which has no patience, discipline or desire to know what is really behind the information, what built it, where its roots are.

There is something religious about the bleak high walls of Finkielkraut’s vertical system. Monasteries (cross-culturally) have always been centers of learning. Jealously guarded by high walls, even if metaphorical, they were able to sustain the peace and quiet necessary for serious scholarship. Universities, not surprisingly, were founded on religious grounds, not academic. Where Truth is venerated and celebrated.

It is this lack of reverence for knowledge and truth that has brought on the ‘horizontal’ system which Finkielkraut talks about.

If truth is no longer a prerequisite for knowledge, then what is?

Finkielkraut was forced to retract his statements in a humiliating interview after he received death threats and law suites from ‘ethnic’ organizations.

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Synaesthesea

Seeing Voices

In artistic vocabulary synaesthesea is a word that describes when one of the senses evokes another – such as “blue is the sound of the universe…”

True synaesthesea is a rare, neurological phenomenon. But many artists believe they can interchange the various senses in their art.

Sometimes, they (the artists) are really stretching our imagination. At other times, though, I think it really does work that way.

For example, in color we talk of harmonious colors, or the tone of a color.

In music, we also talk of its tonality, or the chromatic scale, or the beautiful tone colors played by interlacing the different sounds of organ pipes to make a complex layer of sound – or I should say music.

And there is also a section in Exodus 20:18 and 22, where "the people saw the noise of the trumpet” when God was delivering the Commandments to them.

18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. 22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven.

It seems that even in Biblical messages, it is appropriate to excite different senses to get the full message across. To see the full force of God’s Voice must have been quite an experience.

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Belief in God - Part II

Are Artists less Religious than Scientists?

To have a positive religion is not necessary. To be in harmony with yourself and the universe is what counts, and this is possible without positive and specific formulation in words.

This is a quote attributed to Goethe, and it fits his choice of investigation in the Theory of Colors.

Goethe, although having written on botany and spent much time doing empirical observations on color, is really known as a poet first and foremost. He did try his hand at painting, but his paintings were never comparable to his other great achievements.

The interesting thing about artists – and that includes all creative people like poets, novelists, painters and musicians – is that they’re often making things out of nothing.

Although Goethe worked within the morals of his times, it is in his color theory where he set aside a complex table of polarities where he created his own tentaive morality based on colors. Blue is weakness, Yellow strength; Blue is attraction, Yellow repulsion. It is almost as though he were rewriting his own code for life – his own ten commandments – based on his earthly visions and empirical experiments.

He tried to be in harmony with the universe and with himself, without the explicit help or direction of God.

Scientists never really attempt to recodify the world, only to find the hidden and invisible structures that make up this world. Artists, at heart, wish to recreate the world and make it in their own image. They will always have a certain god-complex, some competition with God Himself.

Goethe’s many quotes, works and ideas testify that he was such a true artist, and probably an atheist as well.

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Belief in God - Part I

Are Scientists more Religious than Artists?

Was Isaac Newton an occultist? Well, it is documented that he was a type of alchemist.

Alchemy is the precursor to our modern-day chemists, although alchemist’s final goal was to find that ‘philosopher’s stone’. The stone that could turn all base metals into gold; or one that could fend off death. It seems that Newton, like many of his contemporaries, was really interested in how things worked, how metals interacted with each other, how nature arranged things. His alchemy seemed based on curiosity, rather than blasphemy.

As for occultist, Newton had a secret system to try and decode the Bible – but anyone with his curiosity and pattern-finding mind would work on other things besides the material world. He had the propensity to find out how things worked.

And like any human being, he must have at times thought quite a bit of himself. His favorite Latin anagram for his name "Isaacvs Nevtonvs" was "Ieova Sanctvs Vnvs," or "Jehovah's holy one." But everyone indulges in little acts of supremacy at times – to no avail and to no harm.

As for his eccentricities like this one (and others), well there is a saying "Mad dogs and Englishmen"!

Newton’s understanding of the components of light is really related to his alchemical work. He broke down the constituents of light, just like he did his metals, to find the single strands that made up the whole. White light traveling through a prism gives a spectrum of colored lights was one of his major discoveries.

Newton had disagreements with the form of Christianity that was believed in the England of his time. It was his own, perhaps at times misguided, attempt at trying to find the rational in the universe, trying to find God. But, he was a fundamentally religious, and Christian, person. In his quest to understand the nature that God created, he wrote:

"All these things being consider'd, it seems probable to me, that God in the Beginning form'd Matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable Particles, of such Sizes and Figures, and with such other Properties, and in such Proportion to Space, as most conduced to the End for which he form'd them; and that these primitive Particles being Solids, are incomparably harder than any porous Bodies compounded of them; even so very hard, as never to wear or break in pieces; no ordinary Power being able to divide what God himself made one in the first Creation."

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Good Works

And Workmanship

Ephesians 2:8-10

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

I believe this passage is talking about God’s work and man’s work. That we are all God’s creations, His Workmanship.

But men still to do works. And we must choose whether to do good works or bad works. And even with the good, we are to find out which we are to do.

This must be the greatest dilemma of artists, who also create ‘out of nothing’. What good works are they to do that they walk in them as ordained by God?

Still, these are the questions that all Christians face. And its simple answer is for all of us to hear: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."

We should submit to God even those works that we consider to be our own, since they all ultimately come from Him.

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Our Silver Screens

In Defense of Black and White Films

There are still the joys of watching classic movies on exclusive channels on TV. Besides the fact that most of these films are the cream of the crop – who’s going to air those mediocre ones anymore – many of them are in black and white.

There have been many attempts to colorize these films, mainly to try and attract a wider audience, and quite simply acquire more revenue.

But since 1988, any black and white film that has been put on the National Film Registry and has been colorized is legally bound to post a disclaimer.

The argument that won this case is that a colorized movie detracts from the original intention and expression of the artist/filmmaker.

And I agree.

Black and white films are like charcoal or pencil drawings, where the form, line, shade and light play an important part. And on film, there is the added dimension of projected light which produces those beautiful shimmering effects that so aptly gave us the ‘Silver Screens’.

Black and white films are quite capable of holding interest. Many people are returning to those black and white photographs - buying birthday cards, putting up posters of Westons and Ansel Adams. No one would think of colorizing those!

I think it is just a matter of making these movies more available, and letting people know that they're around. Lack of popular demand is really not the audience's fault. It will only watch what is available.

These days, what is available seems to be of the 'Desperate Housewives' variety - or those blockbuster movies which only teenagers watch.

Time to put more confidence on the 'popular' vote.

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Double Identity

A Japanese, a Dane and an American were on French TV...

Bernard Pivot of the French cultural program "Apostrophe" fame is now doing a monthly show called "Double Je". He is trying to find non-French people who have somehow dedicated their lives, or part of their lives, to French culture.

The Japanese Balzacian Kazuo Kiriu has written an impressive ‘Balzac’ Dictionary over a twenty year period, and spent thirty years teaching French Literature in Japan. His dream is to afford to retire in France. His love for Balzac, and his immense dedication to French literature is very touching.

The Danish Queen Margrethe II, as well as having married a French count - Henri Marie Jean André - has translated Simone de Beauvoir’s “Tous les hommes sont mortels” into Danish, and speaks impeccable French. She is also an accomplished artist.

Now onto John Malkovich. Pivot visited Malkovich in his country house in Provence. Most of Malkovich’s conversation dwelt on how quickly he learnt French (badly, though I might add) and how he could never communicate with his non-English speaking Croatian grandparents.

Near the middle of the interview, Malkovich started throwing in ‘tu’s instead of the obligatory ‘vous’ at his interviewer. There was no mistake in this. If it isn't the ultimate insult at his French host, then what is. Malkovich seems neither at home in America, nor in France. Perhaps he should try Croatia next.

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Autumn Triptych

Maples

At the Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, home to one of the finest tree collections in North America.

[Photos by Camera Lucida]

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In Memoriam

How the War was Won

One of the most interesting and intricate of World War II films, the Dambusters, is a testament to all the levels of a society coming together to outwit, outsmart and outfight the enemy.

War was not just a matter of dropping bombs, but the right kind of bombs at the right targets.

The Bouncing Bombs, as they were called, were the invention of the engineer Barnes Wallis, who thought they were the best way to burst various key German dams.

Basically, by bouncing the balls on the surface of the water, he would extend their range, get them to skip over protective nettings and land next to the dam wall, and reduce their weight considerably than if they were dropped right above the target.

This idea had already been put to use by Lord Nelson in earlier sea battles, who bounced his cannon balls across the waters to fire at enemy ships.

The Dambusters, also know as 617 Squadron, flew the elite Lancaster bombers under Wing Commander Gibson in a moonlit night to accomplish their mission.

It wasn’t just the fighting soldiers who won the War, but minds such as Willis’s were crucial to its success.

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A Return to Christ

Yet Another Gospel?

Anne Rice’s first person narrative of the seven year-old Jesus in "Christ the Lord" is quick becoming a best-seller.

It is strange that people would rather read the imaginative rumblings of an undocumented (and I would say unimportant) episode in Jesus’s life.

I’m sure the purpose of that lack of documentation is that we be encouraged to read the Scriptures instead.

Her premise that Jesus's spirituality and Godliness developed as he grew physically already defies all available information.

How does she explain the 12-year-old that stood before a group of religious experts and proceeded to discuss Godly matters with them? Where did he find that supreme confidence and authority from, while still a child (albeit crossing over into manhood?).

As a born again Catholic, why not attain the humility of quietly and actively serving God according to the Bible, rather than attempting to write another Gospel?

This is the problem with modern Christianity. People cannot, and will not accept God’s word at heart. They prefer to write their own versions.

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Portrait of a Lady

Not in Her Likeness


Mayor Hazel McCallion is one of Canada's outspoken, daring and most successful leaders of a city.

She dared to voice her mayoral point of view on free-loading refugees and immigrants taking over her hospitals and institutions, at Canadians’ tax payers expense.

Now it seems the arts community is also feeling her bite. As usual, it is the mediocre ones who complain.

Brian Osmond, a photography store owner, was asked to pull down an uncomplimentary painting of the mayor. His reason for putting up this dismal portrait: The mayor doesn’t support the ‘arts’.

He finally took down the painting due to negative publicity for his business. So his higher ideals are all about money.

But once again, here on Camera Lucida, it is always interesting to look at the work of art, and see how it fits with the behavior of the beholder.

Let’s analyse this situation:

1. Osmond actually took a photograph of the mayor, which “he enlarged and finished with chalk and water colors.”

True to 'artists' of Osmond’s ilk, they have no drawing skills, are adept at tracing and copying, and keep their photoshop always at hand.

2. It’s full of simplistic and childish codes.

- Purple hair to show how ‘dated’ McCallion is

- Red to show her ‘strength’, I think he means her power, which not a good thing

- The footsteps around her, courtesy of his young son’s prints, to show that art should be run by someone younger

Borrowed footprints, borrowed portraits, and a little bit of slapdash paint does not art make.

Like the piggy-backing immigrants, McCallion has realized that artists belong into that category as well. And Osmond has a hard time accepting it.

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