Today I've been watching the aftermath of Super Tuesday. With the Democratic party still in limbo about who the nominee will be and the GOP leaning towards McCain, I can't help but think that Vibrant Gray's mission is more important than ever.
I don't know that I have ever talked to a person who is completely happy with our country. No one ever says: yeah, Bush being president is really working out and I think it's great that both Obama and Clinton are in the primary. Oh, and the way McCain and Romney hate each other and argue, that really helps the country grow. If anyone has had a conversation like that, please, let me know. I would be interested.
Anyway, what does Vibrant Gray have to do with this? Our mission is about celebrating the world as gray, encouraging dialogue where there is no drive to find the "right" answer but merely expand our worlds through inquiry. This is definitely not an idea the media is latching on to. So when the media and politicians won't allow room for dialogue I think it is our responsibility, not as artists but as human beings who want to live in a better world, to create that dialogue and narrative in the form of prose and poetry.
Writers and educators alike complain that people just don't read anymore, especially not literature. But what literary pieces are being published right now? I feel like more often than not literary fiction is about the agnst of being young and single and "poor" (read: way above the poverty line, but I can't yet buy a Lexus) and living in New York. Where is the teeth? Where is the drive? Maybe instead of blaming the readers we as writers should look on our own material. Are we celebrating the masterbatory pleasure of being able to write about our own selves and feelings? Or, are we promoting dialogue, thought and discourse, then allowing our readers to make decisions on their own?
I hope Vibrant Gray will help with the latter.
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2 comments:
Nicely put. I'm happy to report that my students are very excited about the election, if not completely satisfied, as you say. Many *are* excited by the fact that Clinton and Obama are around, with breakthroughs that represent, but they want better than the paramaters of the current media debate. And they deserve it, as you say, they deserve a bigger literature.
I agree with you. I guess my larger point is that most of the people who are happy about Obama and Hilary are unhappy somewhere else. Nobody sees the entire political system as being healthy and inspiring of hope.
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