I can understand your recycled kimono horror from my imagination but I don't share it in my heart - unless the conversion is wanton or disrespectful.
If the "new" artefact is something which a modern person will like and admire and enjoy, I would credit the original artist with an acceptance of that, in terms of an afterlife for the creation. Surely, very few artists create for an eternal posterity?
My willingness to dump the old is probably inflamed by the fact that I live in a country which is near-paralyzed (creatively) by an obsession with preserving the past. This ingrains ridiculous positions, which were mere historical accidents (and which can keep bad feeling alive in perpetuity), and starves new architects and artists of the space to do anything except fill in the gaps. And I assure you that, on a very small island, the gaps are becoming pretty tiny!
Do you not think that one of the reasons why creative minds use and revel in the internet (in capabilities like LJ indeed) is because the web is not (yet) saddled with all the cumulative and archival baggage of history? The internet has been the only fresh, blank space available to many creative people. Everything else is rather like a palimpsest - you have to make your mark on top of everyone else's.
I've come rather a long way from Kenshin's sword, I'm afraid, but thank you for raising these opportunities for debate.
Your entry on the sword in Japanese culture deserves careful thinking on by the fandom of our katana-loving leader! In the UK, the manner of thinking and living is so entirely materialistic that I am always delighted to see reminders that physical things will never give us more than an understanding of physics (certainly no wisdom) unless we also bring to them something of the spirit. The Japanese sword is pretty well the epitome of that idea so I'm very pleased to see it explained so well here.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-10-25 12:39 am (UTC)If the "new" artefact is something which a modern person will like and admire and enjoy, I would credit the original artist with an acceptance of that, in terms of an afterlife for the creation. Surely, very few artists create for an eternal posterity?
My willingness to dump the old is probably inflamed by the fact that I live in a country which is near-paralyzed (creatively) by an obsession with preserving the past. This ingrains ridiculous positions, which were mere historical accidents (and which can keep bad feeling alive in perpetuity), and starves new architects and artists of the space to do anything except fill in the gaps. And I assure you that, on a very small island, the gaps are becoming pretty tiny!
Do you not think that one of the reasons why creative minds use and revel in the internet (in capabilities like LJ indeed) is because the web is not (yet) saddled with all the cumulative and archival baggage of history? The internet has been the only fresh, blank space available to many creative people. Everything else is rather like a palimpsest - you have to make your mark on top of everyone else's.
I've come rather a long way from Kenshin's sword, I'm afraid, but thank you for raising these opportunities for debate.
Your entry on the sword in Japanese culture deserves careful thinking on by the fandom of our katana-loving leader! In the UK, the manner of thinking and living is so entirely materialistic that I am always delighted to see reminders that physical things will never give us more than an understanding of physics (certainly no wisdom) unless we also bring to them something of the spirit. The Japanese sword is pretty well the epitome of that idea so I'm very pleased to see it explained so well here.