The Work of the Humanities

“Ripped to core”, Brad Widness, intaglio print

Many of us feel we are in a moment of transition, looking at a past era, and wondering what rough beast is slouching toward us, waiting to be born. A cogent description of the last fifty years can be found in Gary Gerstle’s The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order [published 2022]. (Or you can listen to him describe his thesis in this discussion.)

But no one knows what is coming. My question, as always, is, what do the humanities have to do with it? I think they need re-definition and grounding. In the first place, the humanities are narrowly defined as the study of poetry and literature, the visual arts, music, and film, which encompasses all three. Original art works are made by people. They are in no way in conflict with science, history and fact if they come from an origin story based on evolution and all that we have learned about ourselves and the history of our world.

In a recent gallery talk which accompanied a showing of his work at Augustana University (in addition to that of his wife Ann, my sister), Brad Widness said: “An art work is always an artifact of the meeting of that artist’s interior world with the world around them. The artifact allows the viewer to bring the space into their own lives. …I draw from what I see, the drawing’s life takes over.” The humanities are thus about attention, “letting uncomfortable territory exist,” as Brad says. You can find more of Brad and Ann’s work here.

Art happens in the liminal space between the established and the not yet known, the fractal edge, which is why it is so exciting! The true artist doesn’t begin from someone else’s imagined world. He or she begins with their own perception of the human and natural worlds around them. This should not feel limiting. The world is ever-expanding, allowing the attentive artist to get deep into the wonder at the base of life.

In the post-modern era, people thought they could make their own reality, thus stunting their art and making it irrelevant. “Nothing is real and it’s all about me,” was their refrain. We must get back to a sense of reality not entirely based on ourselves. A tree falls in the forest, disrupting the lives of all the creatures which made it their home. Even if we don’t see it, it falls. Children dying of hunger in Gaza and the Sudan is a tragedy whether we hear of it or not.

Reality is very thick, which is why you have to sit with it, allowing it to coalesce into a shape you can apprehend. It doesn’t do much good to layer your own patterns over it before it is ready. Often we do this, because we don’t have the patience to listen or watch. Or we are afraid of what we will see. As Brad describes it, you sit, waiting to make a mark on the page, waiting for what you don’t know will happen.

The world of story is also a way of being patient with reality. Either as a listener, a watcher or a reader, we are moved by the truth of what the words call up in our own minds. Words, at the base of how we became human, must mean something. Filling our lives with authentic truth and feelings gives us strong roots and makes the inauthentic seem silly.

We do not have to be working in the arts to know what this feels like. We all interact with the world: cooking, cleaning, quilting, working on a car, singing, paying bills, playing with children … All of these things require creativity, the attention of people. The humanities shines a light on human activity, grounding it, and directing our attention toward the real.

In addition to making lives of value and beauty, the humanities helps us determine what is worth while, true and beautiful. We must fight our way back to real human values. When post-modern art made its own reality, each person centering their lives around themselves alone, values became eroded. We no longer seemed to care about proper behavior toward each other and became defensive individuals shouting. Of course we each have worth and dignity. No need to shout.

And everyone’s a critic nowadays. Good ones have some sense of objectivity. Bad ones see only what is in it for themselves, subscribing to the consumer ethic: “But I paid my money, and, but, well, this isn’t what I paid my money for!” Going back to classical philosophies and literature helps. What are the standards for humans in the world? We do have some innate capabilities for judgment, it is clear. We need to move forward, exploring them as we always have, through authentic art, literature and music.

So how am I using the humanities to surf the future? I will continue in all the life-giving practices I engage in with my family, happy, as the Chinese sages were, that I don’t live too close to the capitol! I am retraining the algorithms on my YouTube channel to go back to my study of American (mostly) songwriting, away from the political punditry I’ve been listening to. I plan to re-read Doctor Zhivago, written by Boris Pasternak, the story of a brave individual caught in the crossfires of history. And, like Brad, I will sit with my journal, making marks, listening, watching and smelling reality as it develops.