As you probably know, the centenary of the famous poem by T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land, is being celebrated, and last night we watched on the TV as Ralph Fiennes read the entire work. It was good to be reminded of familiar and valued passages, and also to find that my attention was drawn to aspects of the work which have not really registered previously. I have to admit that in some respects, however, it was an oddly problematic experience.
Fiennes is an actor justly celebrated for his range and ability, but I could not help but feel that his talent in this direction actually got in the way of my appreciation of the poem. There were too many occasions on which he was not content simply to speak the poem, but felt compelled to act it out. Of course, any reading of a poetic work inevitably brings with it an interpretation of some kind, which might be more or less of a challenge to the imagery that has already lodged in one’s head. It can be a refreshing experience to be compelled to take a new angle on one’s point of view of the work. Nevertheless, this experience seemed to me to go beyond that. In some way the actions managed to “displace” the words or to diminish their weight.
I’ve spent a part of the day wondering whether there might be some comparable experience in relation to the visual arts. What might it be like, I asked myself, if we could only view a celebrated and treasured picture while somebody played music? Would this not constitute a diversion of our attention? Perhaps closer to my concern is the irritation I have felt in the past when somebody has thought it necessary to show visual images while music is playing. I really don’t need to be shown pictures of the countryside while I’m listening to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. My own experience and imagination do that work.
This is the point, isn’t it? The appreciation of any work of art requires us to do some work. That is what it means to “appreciate” something artistic. Something is seriously amiss if we are deprived of that aspect of the experience.
Wait a minute, though! What am I doing when I engage with the work of T.S. Eliot through the medium of my art? It makes you think.