[cambraceres]

As a kafka fan, you should have a special insight into this one. Op mentioned financial gain as one of the motivating factors for expression, but it was less a factor for many greats, such as Kafka, than others would assume. Kafka recieved no payment for his work, and did not pursue fame as a matter of course. His work was done at night, after regular working hours, and it was done as he said to soothe an ache. On the other hand, Nabakov mentioned his singular cause when writing a book was to bring it to an end as quickly as possible, as if expression itself were painful.

There are alot of people who function largely, and naturally, upon emotion. Music, imagery, and all the other multivarious forms of art allow us to speak in terms that can only be felt, and to say the things which can in no other way be communicated. The value of expression for those who are more centered on how they feel is pervasive; for the apathetic, clear eyed middle ager; not so much. For the young and the emotionally predisposed, poets can be teachers, the most meaningful ones that can be found. artists deal in an ineffable product of unknown origins, that in some unclear way accesses the most precious vault; the reservior of human feelings. There is significant evidence that depressive mindsets produce artistic responses of higher quality and frequency, especially with manic depressives during an manic session. Tchaikovsky was bipolar, and his periods of production exactly coincide with manic episodes, and the same is true for a suprising number of artists, especially poets.


Cam

"Poetry is not entertainment, it is escape"
Robert Lowell