Bartes, Roland. “Toys”, Mythologies. Hill and Wang. New York. 1972
“Wood makes essential objects, object for all time. Yet there hardly remain any of these wooden toys… Henceforth, toys are chemical in substance and colour; their very material introduces one of coenaethesis of use, not pleasure.”
This short quote introduces several of the important existential perspectives concerning the philosophical issues of substance and of purpose which will be explored in the piece. First, the sentences invite one to first scratch that uncomfortable yet familiar itch, what am I? For Bartes “wood” (the natural, the eternal), contrasts “chemical[s]” (the man-made, the ephemeral) enforcing the essential dichotomous assumption which we hope to dissolve. The title of the piece, “New York is a Big Apple”, can alternatively be read as “Man is Nature” which is the myth that we intend to substantiate. Indulgence in this first contemplation inevitably leads to the confrontation of a logical second, why am I here, which Bartes also presents in polar fashion. At one end, life is the embodiment of intended purpose (“use”), at the other end, life is simply exultation (“pleasure”), a spectacle, a dance. We explore purported contradiction by contrasting the ideologies of those steeped in Western (Christian), or Eastern (Hindu, Buddhist) philosophies. Using the essays and lectures intellectual and academic philosophers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alan Watts, Ayn Rand and Adam Smith we lay down the dueling perspectives in an introductory portion. Then, in the body of the piece, we bend and weave these dualities into duplicities through the prose and poetry of Donald Barthelme, Lorie Moore, and W.S. Merwin.
Posted in: Collaborative Projects Blog.
Hi, thanks for sharing this.