Art is: Literature is a chance for writers to explore art
Published 9:00 am Saturday, February 17, 2018
Art is by Bev Jackson Cotter
The American Heritage Dictionary defines art as “Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter or counteract the work of nature … any field of art such as music, ballet or literature.”
Consequently, my definition of art is something like, “using your imagination to create a new meaning or definition from something obvious.”
Literature is the perfect place to examine this theory, and English is the perfect medium.
I love history. Reading about what people did and how they resolved problems makes me realize that the world just keeps going round and round and in spite of our progress and technology, we keep making the same dumb mistakes. But that’s the subject for another column. Back to the art of literature.
The “History of Freeborn County, Minnesota” was published in 1882 by the Minnesota Historical Company, Minneapolis. Its authors had a wonderful command of the English language, yet it is a long way from today’s common usage.
For example, in describing marriage, a certain young couple was the “victims of love’s young dream,” and when married they “joined two hearts to beat as one,” while they “legally started in the journey of life hand in hand.” Other couples were “joined in wedlock,” “joined in matrimony” or their “destinies were united.”
When a child was born he was “ushered into the light of this world.”
There were many different ways to describe death. “The grim and sorrow-laden messenger of death lowered itself in the midst of sparsely settled Freeborn and carried away its first victim…”
“The thread of life was snapped asunder,” “his family lost the sun that shone o’er their pathway,” “Life’s fitful fever o’er, he sleepeth well,” “The dial of time struck its last hour for her,” “the cares of life were quietly laid down for whatever else may be in store for her,” “He was mustered out of earthly service (a Civil War veteran),” “The grim messenger of death called him hence,” “After an experience of 73 years in this world, she quietly passed to the other shore,” “He peacefully yielded up the burdens of life to enter upon eternity,” and “He was called upon to cross the dark river from earthly to eternal existence.”
This beautiful creativity with words is not confined to marriages, births and deaths. Writers used other interesting descriptions.
This man’s activities made him very unwelcome in the community and consequently he moved.
“His whereabouts at present is a mystery, to the satisfaction of all who knew him.”
And another — Because of the deep snow, W.N Oleson brought his wife on a hand sled from Shell Rock [Glenville] to their new home, a dug-out near Bancroft. Later he “became civilized” and built a shanty for them to live in.
I recently ran across a print-out from an email sent to me by a friend many years ago. It is titled, “Who says English makes sense?” It’s a listing of many of our words in everyday usage that have totally different meanings depending on how they are used. It makes me glad that I never had to learn English as a second language. One of my favorite statements in the listing is, “Why is it that writers write but, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?”
We say that we speak English, but in America we’ve made a lot of creative language changes.
For example: “I used the fish slice to stir the mince before putting it on the bap. Then I rode the lift, found my saloon car, checked the wing and bonnet before putting my plimsolls in the hood. I had to take a slight diversion before entering the motorway. There was a guy standing there with interesting looking sideboards, but I didn’t offer him a ride.”
Is that art? Maybe, but it is proper English.
Bev Jackson Cotter is a member of the Albert Lea Art Center where the “All Member Show” runs through February 24.