{"id":12608,"date":"2011-08-21T16:00:58","date_gmt":"2011-08-21T23:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=12608"},"modified":"2011-08-21T09:53:17","modified_gmt":"2011-08-21T16:53:17","slug":"reasons-to-be-cheerful-part-3-1-1-psalm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12608\/reasons-to-be-cheerful-part-3-1-1-psalm\/","title":{"rendered":"Reasons to be cheerful, Part 3.1.1: Psalm."},"content":{"rendered":"

Art is demanding, and that’s good. But art is petulant and importunate and presumptuous to a fault. Art is that damned nuisance of a snoopy neighbor who keeps knocking, knocking, knocking on your cellar door. Art goes straight for the places you forbid yourself to think about and rummages through your most terrifying secrets like a burglar tearing through your underwear drawer. Good art makes you hate it as you devour it, shun it as you immerse yourself in it. Good art makes you restless and jagged and ragged and inspired. Good art makes you shiver. Great art makes you cringe.<\/p>\n

Art is a vanity in precisely this way: I presume to recreate reality in my own image and likeness, and I have the effrontery to demand that you not only acknowledge that reality but prefer<\/i> it. I presume to seize the universe and squeeze out of it a tiny seed of truth. And I presume to plant that seed within you — without your consent, perhaps without even your knowledge. And I presume to nurture this new universe I have caused to grow within you until you scream — if I am good enough — scream from agony and delight. And I presume to do all of this for no purpose of yours, but only for reasons of my own devising. And at the end of it you may thank me or damn me, but you will never have been more than the means to my end: I sought not you but only to spawn myself anew within you — immaculate conceptualization. Art is a vanity because it is the means by which the artist postures as a god — and not a very merciful god.<\/p>\n

I see all of this and yet I embrace it. I am as much art’s victim as you, although on my best days I am lucky enough to have a bit of my own back. But as a species and as individuals we are unwilling to forswear the worst of our vices without that resounding blow to the head that art alone provides. Our artists are Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Art is demanding, and that’s good. But art is petulant and importunate and presumptuous to a fault. Art is that damned nuisance of a snoopy neighbor who keeps knocking, knocking, knocking on your cellar door. Art goes straight for the places you forbid yourself to think about and rummages through your most terrifying secrets like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,212,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-egoism-in-action","7":"category-flourishing","8":"category-group-therapy","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3176,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3176\/psalm\/","url_meta":{"origin":12608,"position":0},"title":"Psalm","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm kicking this back to the top of the blog, as well. I think this is a good example of the kind of behavior that has been denounced for millennia by would-be bosses, but I also think this approaches an ideal expression of how human beings should behave. Plus which,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":927,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/927\/a-few-good-expenses-a-defense-of-the-salespersons-art\/","url_meta":{"origin":12608,"position":1},"title":"A few good expenses: A defense of the salesperson’s art","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"My friend Richard Nikoley dug this up. I've never bought a lap dance, but I've expensed a lot of meals. Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":674,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/674\/thanksgiving-brutality-eric-bogosians-talk-radio\/","url_meta":{"origin":12608,"position":2},"title":"Thanksgiving Brutality: Eric Bogosian’s Talk Radio . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I like brutal art -- no mercy, no quarter. I like any sort of brutality on the part of the artist, by which I mean the refusal to temporize or euphemize or in any other way permit the audience to gloss over or ignore reality. Understand, I don't seek a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Casual Friday"","block_context":{"text":"Casual Friday","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/casual-friday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=gregswann-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00004X13U","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16387,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/16387\/rock-me-mama-egoism-in-action-the-link-from-art-to-human-values-and-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":12608,"position":3},"title":"Rock Me Mama Egoism In Action: The link from art to human values and back.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Everything is all one thing, so this is a video essay about art about music about morality about song-writing about marriage about redemption \u2013 simple stuff. This is egoism in action, me being me. This video connects directly to the argument I made on Friday about \u2018conservative\u2019 art, and all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1748,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1748\/a-different-take-on-the-art-of-real-estate-weblogging\/","url_meta":{"origin":12608,"position":4},"title":"A different take on the art of real estate weblogging","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my secret vices, Leonard Cohen: Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15892,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/15892\/from-man-alive-the-integrity-of-art\/","url_meta":{"origin":12608,"position":5},"title":"From Man Alive! – “The integrity of art.”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"From: Man Alive! A survival manual for the human mind. Extract from Chapter 8. The integrity of art. When I talk about Mothertongue and Fathertongue, I know that many people are straining to divide them up in their minds, to separate them and to regard them somehow as being opposites.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12608"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14975,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12608\/revisions\/14975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}