Sunday 22 June 2014

THE WITNESSES

"Pathology is a relatively easy thing to discuss, health is very difficult.  This, of course, is one of the reasons why there is such a thing as the sacred, and why the sacred is difficult to talk about, because the sacred is peculiarly related to the healthy.  One does not like to disturb the sacred, for in general, to talk about something changes it, and perhaps will turn it into a pathology." — Gregory Bateson

"… an elevated mayhem… a bedlam of study…" — Will Alexander


Last summer, hitching back to the forest, I got a lift from a guy who once saw Neil Young perform live.  He told me “people came out of that concert better people than when they went in.”  Watching this video I knew it was true.  The audience shots are unbelievable: invisible people crossing over, imaginary, innocent, half-outlaw, half-detectivos.  These are the kind of people I love, and I watch them from a distance, though I haven’t yet learnt to talk to them from a distance.  They are the witnesses I keep thinking about and try to write about.  I see them as the kind of being that will exist right up to the final moments of life on the planet.  They will outlive the palace officials and the gallery owners and the judges.

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