The vision thing
Yesterday) at my local coffee shop (Steady Hand Pour House) three of us were discussing novels and writing. This led to what I shall term the vision thing insofar as great novels, in fact any great work of art depends, more or less, on the vision thing (okay, this is my opinion).
In all this, the ultimate vision is self-knowledge, that is, knowledge of who we fundamentally are which takes us beyond the mundane realm which is the fodder of most novels, even very good ones.
While there is no active attempt to suppress the vision thing, at least in academia (which is a good thing), there is somewhat of a covert attempt to suppress the vision thing in religion; in particular Buddhism (I have in mind the popularity of secular Buddhism). This is probably because with great vision, also comes a new religionat least a new interpretation which puts all the pieces of the puzzle together instead of leaving so many out.
Just before we ended the conversation (it was running after six), I could not help but sense that every great artist dares to go for the vision thing as do great spiritual beings, but few make it. It aint easy. It is much easier to mask vision with a tour de force which is not the same as genius.
