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Chapter 12 Commentary

Page history last edited by Jenny Mackness 3 years, 9 months ago

 

 

There was nothing that surprised me in this chapter. It was easy to recognise the characteristics of the modern and post-modern eras, as described by McGilchrist, and to agree with him, having reached this penultimate chapter of the book, that there is plenty of evidence around us, seen in art, music, poetry and cinema, to suggest that we are living in a left-hemisphere dominated world. The fact that the arts now suffers from excessive self-consciousness also rings true, and that art and music now tend to be made explicit in words is an instantly recognisable phenomenon. What is interesting to me, and is not discussed explicitly by McGilchrist, is that many successful artists, living, working and exhibiting today, who show these left hemisphere tendencies, do not seem to have any awareness that this is the case. McGilchrist does name a number of artists who he thinks managed to escape left hemisphere dominance, for example Schiele, Chagall and Spencer, but he doesn’t say how he came to this judgement, or what it was about their paintings that distinguished them in this way. He seems to identify perspective and depth as being important characteristics of art not dominated by the left hemisphere, and that the artist succeeds in taking the viewer through and beyond the work of art. I would have liked to know which of Schiele, Chagall and Spencer’s paintings he thinks do this.

 

The discussion of the superiority and impotence of literary criticism was interesting. I was particularly struck by the advice to critics to Do no harm’ and the sentence: 'Be careful not to import something that will obscure the view; a patient, tactful approach to the otherness of the work, however, might yield a glimpse of something rare' (p.423), which has caused me to reflect on whether I have managed to avoid this in making these notes, but also to wonder whether, even at this stage, McGilchrist was anticipating the criticism he might receive for this writing. My understanding, from a recent video interview, is that the huge amount of detail that McGilchrist includes in these chapters, is, in part, a defence against potential criticism. For me, the key messages resonate, and I don’t need the huge amount of detail to justify them, which reminds me of the comment that McGilchrist made earlier in the book, that you are either with him or not in the arguments he makes in this book, and there’s not a lot he can do about it, if you are not.

 

This raises the question (which may be a bit premature, because I have yet to make notes on the final chapter) of whether this book can dissuade people from their left hemisphere perspectives, i.e. can it change their view of the world?

 

 

 

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