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Paradise of Bhaishaijyaguru |
NYU has produced eminent scholars in the fields of
philosophy and law. The late Ronald Dworkin and Thomas Nagel are two of the
most notable examples. In a recent Sunday
Review, Samuel Scheffler, another NYU professor whose appointment bridges
these two disciplines broached a question that is not often taken up by either
lawyers or philosophers and that’s the afterlife (“The Importance of the Afterlife. Seriously,” NYT, 9/21/13). Scheffler isn’t dealing with the question
of whether there is soul that lives on in heaven or hell. He is dealing with
the life that goes on after we are gone and his premise is that many things
wouldn’t make sense in this life, if we didn’t think human life was going to go
on after us. It’s a little bit the notion that Beckett expresses humorously in
Endgame when Clov asks “Do you believe in the life to come?” and Hamm replies,
“Mine was always that.” Scheffler isn’t dealing with questions of heaven or
hell. He avoids theology by materializing the question of the afterlife, in
much the way that insurance companies do. From an actuarial point of view why
would one want to expend energy on certain activities, if the world were coming
to an end? “If you were a cancer researcher, you might be less motivated to
continue your work,” he remarks. The end of the world would have a similar
effect on “an engineer working to
improve the seismic safety of bridges.” But when he brings up the question of
novelists, playwrights and composers he’s on shaky ground. Sure most creatives
dream they will produce classics that will live on forever. But the fact is
that few do. Within a generation or two many well-known writers will fade into
oblivion. Updike might have staying power, but few people today talk of John
O’Hara, the author of Appointment in Samarra and Butterfield 8 who was a legend in his
time. Ever hear of a writer named John P. Marquand who won a Pulitzer for The Late George Apley in 1938? How
many Rembrandts, Beethovens and Tolstoys are there in recorded history? Must a
writer maintain the delusion of immortality in order to function? Or is there
something to be said for the fact that writing, composing and painting would
have a function even if Chicken Little were right and the sky was falling.
After all in the case of a doomsday scenario who is going to write the eulogy
for the human race? Who is going to provide the music at the service? Who will provide the
design of life’s final brochure?
Creativity isn't so much a rational act as it is a compulsion. The most wondrous fresco can be painted over (in institutional beige) only to be revealed generations later during a remodel. Creativity is an act of faith--that the colors, or words, or music one hears in ones head are worth exploring--and sharing. I believe it is the highest form of faith, unapologetic faith in oneself.
ReplyDeleteI have a fantasy of the last moments of human life on earth, and a poet standing alone on a mountaintop describing it all, not in writing but by shouting her words into the wind.
You're assuming the poet will be a woman, I see.
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