EveTushnet.com

4-year old post worth reading from Eve Tushnet about heroism and the impossibility of "realistic" art. Here's some quotes:

EveTushnet.com: "And I can see what he meant, sort of. I mean, I've never killed an old woman just to find out if God is dead. Similarly, I've never worried that my uncle killed my father because he wanted to marry my mother and become King of Denmark. Similarly, I've never found myself in a dark wood, about the middle point in my life, and been taken through the infernal, purgatorial, and celestial realms by various and sundry guides. You see where I'm going with this, no?"

"Art. Is. Not. Life. It is, when it is doing its job, a selection from life, a snapshot taken with an eye to framing and cropping. What is left out is as significant as what stays in. Art is a high-contrast, sometimes a solarized, photograph of life, not a random Kodak moment. Art uses a language of symbol, allusion, and archetype, in which every red is more crimson than it is in our daily lives, every tree is taller, every wind blows stronger."