Monday, May 6, 2013

The Art is Greater:

My first year of post-secondary education was spent near the edge of a vast wind swept desert. I remember the name of only one of the professors, my professor of literature. He was quite memorable, but I suspect I remember him because his surname was the same as one of the greatest poets ever, T.S. Eliot.

One day in class I asked my professor if it mattered how the author actually interpreted one of the poems we were studying. He replied that it didn't because the art is always greater than the artist. The art stands for itself and is a glimpse of some greater truth that even the artist cannot fully comprehend.

I was thinking tonight about Philip Rosedale's abandonment of Second Life. If the creator of this virtual world has lost interest in it, what does that say about the worth of the metaverse? And then I remembered what my literature professor had said about art being greater than the artist. Second Life is greater than its creator. Philip Rosedale's lack of interest in his creation is not relevant to the importance of Second Life. We know its importance.

And if a virtual universe can be greater than its creator, can humans be greater than their creator?

6 comments:

  1. A virtual world is artificial and man-made inhabited by men, so the creator is not superior to other men ............ the metaverse remains the same because the value is the give the inhabitants. A church is his disciples, if no disciples, no church.
    Kisses!!

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  2. I was thinking god was an artist and the universe his canvas. And we were god's poetry.

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  3. That makes me think of those movies where the creations of man go on to outdo and outlive their human creators, like the little boy and the teddy bear in AI. Artificial Intelligence.

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  4. It is rather long and it was a long time in the making. I believe you would enjoy it and also reading about how it came about.

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