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Faculty Forum You Cannot Conceive The Many Without The One -Plato- Issue No. 2, Spring Edition March 25, 2005 This publication is available to our academic make use of him or her in some way? Or, community as contributors desire to publicly share rather, might it be better if we could push scholarly-based thoughts and opinions. Please sub- mit contributions (ten double-spaced pages or less) the artist aside in order to get a better view as a Word attachment, in 12-point font, to emer- of the art? [email protected]. Authors, please note that you are Does it help, for instance, to picture Beetho- writing for an audience that includes faculty, staff, ven, old and deaf, con ducting a premiere of and students. his 9th Symphony before an appreciative full house, and hearing it, in all its glory, Why Tom Hanks is a Bad Actor; only inside his head? Does it help to know or, the Trouble with Biography. that Stephen Crane, author of the Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage, was born In the car the other day, during a dis- after the war was over? That he never set cussion of a movie directed by Woody Al- foot on any battlefield? Does it help to len, one of my colleagues admitted that her know that James Joyce, novelist and author view of an artist’s work—movie director, of a collection of poems entitled Chamber actor, novelist, poet, painter, composer—is Music, heard music in the sounds of a colored by what she might happen to know woman tinkling? Does it help to know that about that person’s life. In her opinion, William Faulkner was from Mississippi? then, Woody Allen doesn’t come off too That Van Gogh cut off his ear? That all the well. Tom Hanks comes off better. women in Bob Dylan’s songs might re fer to a real woman who once was his wife? Such responses are entirely valid, That Madonna was, is, and will be a mate- and the psychology of their effects reminds rial girl? That Tom Hanks is a real nice us that a human being stands behind the an- guy? gles in a movie, the words of a poem, the strings of a musical concerto. That humans These historical and biographical exist behind every work of art raises impor- facts are interesting, and may contribute or tant questions about the relationships be- detract from our appreciation of the work tween art and life. Their existence raises a that we connect with such real people. particular question for the art consumer: However, does the presence of such facts as what are we to do with these people while these really help us to evaluate the art? we are in the midst of experiencing a work Well, it depends on what one means by of art, watching a movie or reading a novel? “help.” Does an artist’s life help us at all when it comes to the artist’s art? Undoubtedly, it The question is undoubtedly as old may. Should we then be encouraged to as art, and it could be argued that it is largely an academic question, since it is the Biography is a painstaking thing, essential objective of the academic to evalu- and, at best, a selective reconstruction of a ate, and to question and refine his or her human being’s life. Literary biography pre- fundamental approach to the objects of sumes, as its starting place, that this is the study. Then again, all readers, listeners of life of a great author. Shakespeare is the music, museum-goers, and moviegoers man who wrote Hamlet, and so a biography evaluate art as they experience it. And most of Shakespeare tells the life of the man who of us consider it desirable to size-up our ex- wrote Hamlet. Biography starts at the end perience by judging a painting or a book or and then tries to reconstruct who it was who a pop-song on its own merit. We recognize did such a great thing. Since literary biog- that historical context may supplement our raphy reads a life through the fact of an in- interest and understanding without provid- dividual’s written work, its selection and ing the ultimate measure of what we appre- arrangement of biographical “facts ” will ciate and disregard. Viewed in this way, always amount to a fiction. then, one could say that biography helps, but perhaps it shouldn’t be employed either Still, to reconstruct an author’s life to save or to condemn any individual work is a very valuable enterprise in itself. How- of art. ever, when it comes to reading books, the business of biography is time and effort Still, can biography hurt? This is a spent away from the books the authors have serious question. It goes beyond exploring, written, the books the authors want us to for instance, whether one should like or dis- read. In many cases, authors go to great like Woody Allen’s movies according to lengths to remove themselves from their whether one likes or dislikes Woody Allen work in hopes that we might spend our time himself. For matters of taste one is free to on the real prize. The real prize is the book, do as one sees fit. However, biographical whose existence, let’s face it, is the sole rea- considerations extend beyond questions of son that we take any interest at all in the relevance and questions of individual taste. human being who once wrote some words There are works of art, in fact, that seek to down on paper. detach themselves from their creators. In such cases, those of us who seek to judge a A famous example of biography’s un- work according to its own merit might do happy intrusion upon fiction is Herman better to forget the artist while we are look- Melville and Moby-Dick. The number of ing at the art. studies that explore the relationship between the life and experience of the man, Herman Literary fiction provides the readiest Melville, and the life and experience of examples of this phenomenon—of art works Moby-Dick’s famous narrator is staggering. that remove themselves from their authors. The narrator of Moby-Dick, Ishmael, signs However, readers often overlook this, and up for and embarks upon his first ever when they do, the author is likely to intrude cruise on a whaling ship. The cruise is a upon the work. Such intrusions can make tragic one. Everyone dies. Well, everyone, things pretty messy. When we put too that is, except for Ishmael, who lives to tell much interest in the authors, we let the au- his tale. Not only does Ishmael live to tell thors interrupt our reading, and these inter- the tale, but the point is that he does tell it. ruptions make things confusing. They take up our time and misdirect our efforts. -2- What’s it called? Moby-Dick. It is These questions—rhetorical ques- an important point of the novel. Moby-Dick tions, it turns out—return us to the funda- is Ishmael’s story. Yeah, some guy named mental question about biography: does it Herman Melville wrote the book. But he really help to know these things? Most peo- puts it in the mouth of a fictional character ple would say yes, but when pressed to ex- who makes the story his own. plain why, most people are hard-pressed. One could say that knowing such facts helps This may seem like a rather simple to generate interest, to supply a context, to point. And rightfully it should be, on its establish credibility. That may be true. But face (it doesn’t, for all that, make Moby- isn’t it the job and the measure of a well- Dick any easier to read). However, a prob- wrought novel to do these things on its lem continuously arises by virtue of the fact own? To say that a novel’s success depends that there is this guy named Herman Mel- on an author’s biography, that the novel ville who actually sat down and wrote needs biography, comes very close to say- Moby-Dick. A once living and breathing ing that it’s not a very good novel. This, of human being, whose parents named him course, does not hold true. Remember, we “Herman Melville,” once invented a guy, a wouldn’t care about Tom Hanks if we didn sailor, who signs up for an adventure on a ’t care for his art. We would not be inter- whaler, experiences the adventure, survives ested in Bob Dylan if he hadn’t written the adventure, and then tells the tale of that “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Sad-Eyed Lady adventure, asking his readers to “Call me of the Lowlands.” It shouldn’t surprise us Ishmael.” Nobody like this Ishmael ever that the sad-eyed lady could be an actual lived and breathed in the physical world as woman who is part of the living man’s past. we know it. Then again, nobody named Enlightening as this might be, it doesn’t “Herman Melville” lives and breathes any- make “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” where in the world presented in the novel either a better or a worse song. It’s a Moby-Dick. mighty good song. On the other hand, in the scholarly Beyond the inconveniences caused writings about Moby-Dick, Herman Mel- by the intrusion of biography, there are ville keeps showing up everywhere.

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