Critical Essay

A creative artist is wild and chaotic and a bundle of obtuse ineptitude somewhat is also true. If he is not, it means he believes in crude imitation, which values neither grace nor the capacity to absorb its wisdom and it is an inadequate understanding of the soil from where he takes birth. Awareness of background is undoubtedly responsible for growth though a creator is scarcely conscious of the fact. Nothing emerges out of emptiness, the creative artist knows. As clarity triumphs over confusion, little by little shadows fade away amidst extreme elusiveness. At this stage, faint ideas take shape and success appears to blow up the self-worth of the architect - a fatal flaw in a creative intellect it is, for it is an indicator of ego.

     What he understood in the beginning about the intangible or the blurred troubles no more exists now, but what lastly emerges is just a hazy recapitulation of what was original. At this moment, the conscious, and the unconscious work inside leisurely at times and are frantic sometimes about which the creator is aware, and so, he appears occupied in collecting little pieces of memories, and experiences in transit. Such recollections and minor or major incidents are also collected through the narration of other men of mature wisdom, who have lived life with meaning braving challenges, irrelevance and triviality, life carries many a time. The creator and the critic undoubtedly work unknowingly with ‘the inner selves’ and the outer world. It is inevitable if a little bit of negligence surfaces it is cause of serious lacuna in understanding the right perspective. Whatever a creative artist brings out in public a work of art or anything literary about the time, location and space, and at times, when he jumps beyond, all-inclusive worldly and universal thoughts assert and make a piece of literature turns out an art form of eternal freshness and pragmatic outlook on life one understands. If it is otherwise, it is not.

     If a creator depicts what he experienced or had a close interface with persons, mundane or psychosomatic activities and impressions, he is authentic and engaging and the moment, he interpolates or ornaments it with extraneous elements, he moves away from truth. It is a dangerous situation, for true art develops cracks. However, the creator knows it and it becomes difficult for the critic to understand the strategy if he is not an insightful man of art, heritage, cultural knowledge and ethnicity integral to the societal frame. Even to share this kind of meagerness or inability with the creator is awesome. Hardly ever, a creator reconciles to lack of knowledge and phrase, and therefore, the liability and error of understanding is very near to the ethical regions. Despite restraint, if he fails to admit the truth and refuses to acknowledge moral faults, it is a natural imperfection in a creator. Is it possible to get rid of this fault is a serious question.

     The creator enjoys absolute freedom as if in isolation. It is the tradition of a creative artist and he thinks he is above everyone else when one scrutinizes creative and artistic taste and proclivity of various hues of artwork whether of India or other countries. Art whether literary in range or otherwise defies limitations of expression or obvious social anxieties with ethical undertones. Whether creative people are freelance scholars, academicians, connoisseurs of art or literary work or professionals, they appear superior, egotistical, and haughty. It obstructs continuity and blunts quality in creation, and thus, the lovers of art and the literary field feel disappointed. It requires control and an unprejudiced approach to men and matters casting aside personal whims and predilections.

     Victims of lethal limitations and instinctive flaws originate from disdain they are. They and the creators are not an exception. Therefore, academics at the pinnacle in the region wherever they are must look into this aspect and correct inadequacies. A man of artistic fondness feels reluctant to say. Exceptions stay to run academic areas with whatever authority they wield, I would say but it is insufficient.

      It is an exclusive world where a creator refuses to tolerate any invasion or interruption and he thinks he is tall. He knows pretence is a huge caricature of truth he prefers to live with but fails ultimately. Even close relations keep a consistent and logical distance from him because of his asymmetrical triviality in manners. Sudden outbursts at times, appear embarrassing for he lacks sophistication and refinement one infers but prefers a deportment of refutation. Possibly, he cares little for moral values and principles of life.

     One firmly believes men often filled with pride and self-image, who contribute to society ruin the trust and confidence of ordinary people. Celebrities think they are free to violate accepted norms of quality conduct, and therefore, run the risk of final downfall sans obituary as often happens… and literature is a witness. The critic is cautious to say if he detects such deadly flaws in creation that carry imprints of the creator’s life-sized ego.  It is difficult to forgive such nature of conduct in a creator, and therefore, the critic has no escape route. At this stage, he cannot afford to pay tributes to the wisdom of the creator even as his personal ego and arrogance of vastness of knowledge mostly enlightening with a redundant coating of prudence or worldly understanding seem to confront fresh sneaky or inventive construction.

     Relations with the creator often prove unsteady because of temperamental failings perhaps. It is not important that one holds warm bonds with the creator but it has immense significance if the creator values warmth. Relations with an artist or author–creator are questionable and sustenance for long raises questions. Better it is, if one asks the future to decide. If creation stays for long it is a strong connection with life and society. The creator wants care despite integral quirks. One cannot firmly say whether too much exclusivity benefits him or not but definitely, it transmits a sense of ego or conceit.

     However, the creator is oddly explosive and unstable looks if one notices his outlook warily. He is arrogant and stupid and refuses to accept inherent wildness and inadequacies, which he often depicts in characters…only that he overlooks what black stains he holds within and tries to hide. So much and yet so little about the creator –the writer, the painter, the musician, the singer, the dancer, the actor, the star or celebrity one knows and …the list is long. Enjoy the art and the artist in what he or she writes or paints, sings or dances or wildly runs and shouts or is melodramatic or rhetoric in airing his or her thoughts and so appears sordid in snivelling. The creator adorns ‘the self’ with many virtues and still many more obscured faulty outlines. Despite this, it is very important to know how deeply he penetrates to arrive at the essence of life in totality.

    A significant strength of a creator is instant explosion, and amazingly, it leaves a long-lasting impression. A simple humming mesmerizes, a couple of lines written in intensity speak of eternal truth, a casual rhythm of drumbeats touches chords of heart, and similarly, a dance to the tunes of heartbeats enthrals. At this moment, one is very near to divine experience. If it is manoeuvred or strained, it fails to create the desired impact. When a creator works on a predetermined theme after gathering necessary stuff, it weakens the impact.

      Creation is not media hype and stunt, the public relations division indulges in to boost up the dipping or fumbling image of a leader. It originates from the heart even as intellect supports it. Lately, literary people of urban background indulge in this grand exhibition and flaunt writings and pomposity in huge literary meets but it is singing of self-praise and invites artificial approbation. However, a perceptive man of literature or art has not noticed any tangible contribution to genuine art, and what they say often tells the audience that what they say is something unique and innovative and that is a great tragedy with minor savings. These creative writers or artists generally aligned to some groups are lousy and continue drum beatings, a natural custom with intended and inconsequential exclusion.

     A creative person is an artist, who looks at varied hues of life –shades of thoughts and emotions from wide-ranging perspectives. A few are predictable, idealistic, and pragmatic and some are greatly ingenious, ludicrous, unrealistic and yet endurable as if. It appears a nonsensical talk along the margin of intellectuality, and therefore, exercises a deep impact, where a man gets involved for the joy of inventing fresh ideas. He is under stress as he has an undeclared burden of the past, an entrenched carrier inside of heritage, culture, history, collective load of what ancestors left for man to nurse, promote or destroy depending upon his will to survive or die known or unknown. People, who do something for others in a give-and-take mindset, live in memories, for man is selfish and does nothing despite the claims he makes. Just think about this outlook on life!

Creator’s functions and objective -autobiographical ingredients

It is the function of a creator to build up an artwork in a way that benefits humankind with remnants of inevitable human flaws, for none is a saint. Even saints construct empires mesmerize people, and make genuine efforts to protect their image. However, there is another aspect. Normally, art works as a purifying agent within a man without a suggestion and the disinfection is possible if man is acquiescent to change. When one uses the word ‘purifying’ it is not a religious ritual, it happens inside when any art brings about some change within and the enjoyer of art feels better as irritation lessens. This change is inevitable as art exercises as a sanctifying force because, during the work of construction or creation, unconstructive or negative feelings and thoughts are absent.

      As a writer, a creator or an artist -each one is a creator; it is an attempt to realize each moment in the intensity of the experience. It is the uninterrupted movement of man in time and space. What exists now at a particular moment and situation conveys a meaning to a man but it carries different connotations from man to man. The next day again, the three will have different meanings for the man, provided he keeps track of feelings and thoughts. Only a sensitive artist of words, colours, paints and materials can decipher the real meaning. Once more, the meaning will change from man to man, and so knowing the truth or reaching truth or truth as a concept is a consistent endeavour of a creator.

     At this moment, he ought to understand that art if it is near the heart of man and makes an impact without waste of time, attracts. At moments, even abstraction, obscurity and profundity in art coaxe to go deep into the essence, it is enjoying art truly.

     A man may remember an incident of years past. He was purchasing some household items at a shop. A teacher looked at the price list of items or tags and expressed displeasure at the prices. He pointed out flaws in the law, underlined certain unethical practices, and concluded that the system is inadequate or imperfect for various reasons. The man heard but kept silent. The shopkeeper gave a reluctant nod and returned ten rupees as a concession. The teacher was a critic, the man realized. If it hurts, one is a cynic and a critic and then, many suggestions emerge.

     A few things are clear. One – evaluative faculty works here, two -criticism of the system it is, three –a true general observation, four –just wants to tell the shopkeeper that none should befool and five –moral issues crop up and so good questions wait for possible answers. Six –the apparatus of running is defective, seven –the men managing the system are not honest, eight –If men are genuine, the clients are greedy or hold fierce negotiations on price and quality, nine –questions of quality always disturb and discourage, ten –the ineptitude to tell the operators to act justly and honestly. Eleven -unsympathetic attitude to the public to register strong-worded complaints…are some other fault lines where political force is corrupt and inefficient. These appear as some salient features, which require immediate attention and treatment without empty statements and hollow doling out of promises and assurances. He was trying to be philosophical, perhaps to cheer up ‘the self.’

     After a few minutes, he had gone. It was routine critical ability working within. Generality or overview is the basis, the beginning and he felt, it is a source of deep enquiry into the good or bad of what you see, do, realize, and thereafter, analyze even as the creator or the artist stops.

     Final profile of creation is uncertain for one never knows what growth takes shape in the womb. It is not a mechanical course of action. If it is spontaneous, it is immediate in finality that emerges and it captivates, and if the process is strenuous, it is thematic anxiety that causes stress on the designer, the creative persona. Naturally, the creative man assumes various nomenclatures for obvious reasons. Whatever may be the art form the objective is man at first. Thereafter, the creator takes into the scope of scrutiny and portrays diverse impact factors, which determine the life of man in totality. Creation is complex, protracted, agonizing, and a long-winding and oblique journey ultimately open to challenges and uncertainties. It takes a visible structure and the creator is nervous as to how people will receive inventive edifice, from now, the functions of a discerning reader and critic are foreseeable for the wellbeing or lasting impression of creation. How the lovers of art or connoisseurs react to arty or creative work is also another important stage in the life of creation.

     Creation requires relooking sans text within and outside in virtually potential primary text, and therefore, if the creator redesigns lexis in commensurate with the precise composition of thought and emotions, eliminating extraneous facts, and conveying what he intends, only then, it is better to leave artwork to the scrutiny of person who reads and weighs up. Almost, a similar approach to other forms of art is essential.

     It is much later that the work of a critic begins. Now, the trend is a little different. In many cases, the artists particularly of literature prefer to procure pre-publication opinions from scholars personally known for better impact so that the public greets it with loud applause. However, these opinions are usually flawed, limited and biased for obvious reasons. It is an approach to avoid genuine critical analysis of an artwork including work in language. Virtually or actually –in reality or in view of the essentiality of situation, it turns important to understand the latent meaning of a work of art.

     In a world of diversity and multiple dimensions, a critic is prone to indulge in vicarious inner self-motivated or stimulated versions of an artwork. It can be any genre irrespective of idiom it employs –whether words or colours or tunes or body for expression. It may appear sensible but in reality, it could invite a few doubts and inquiries about the work of any art –a poem, melody or play of feet or arms or some inspiring colour scheme called painting. It naturally drives an artist to a kind of superficiality. It means a pleasure excursion into a fake experience and taste of artwork that does not appear genuine or authentic. Such living in contemporary times has become an integral part of life and so in synthetic and simulated life one obtains virtual joy.

To reiterate past especially history of men, society and the system and its affairs is an arduous, frustrating and uneasy task and it can drive the narrator to exasperation and collapse. It is otherwise simple but such unfolding never faces authentic scrutiny. In such situations, art is subject to tremendous pressure from the critics old as well as new. In many cases, even critics are subject to tweaks and some jerks where some other critics make casual or inoffensive observations, and so avoid unpleasant comments even on the art of appreciation.

Where the creator stops, which is again a theoretical suggestion, the work of critic begins. Here, one believes creative urging never ends. It continues with transitory hassles. To see the good and the ugly in any creation means its utilization, benefit or advantage and not necessarily uplifting effect on man and society. To teach is not the function of true art rather it is an oblique act. It is not necessary all the time for the critic to find what is non-existent and give stretched out suggestions contiguous to abstruse regions with little relevance to rationale but then it often happens. A critic at times, loves to meander in the joy of possible vision and phantasm whereas a creator manipulates for better effect.

Just envisage scenarios when the critic goes into altered text he frames inside during the course of understanding a creative work. If the critic goes into the pre-textual stage of a creative man, the real significance undergoes change. Critic’s work is a little difficult than the creation. In creation, the creator flows with the strong current of imagination or daydreaming. At times, he remains in touch with realities of life and many a time imaginings contribute to the creation. Poetry, if grants some liberty at times, it also creates difficulties in getting to the essence of what a poet’s wishes to convey but it does not happen in other forms of art.

A critic, who experiments with innovative tools of criticism, leaving aside for a while authorities on critical theories, writes eloquently on a word that derives essence from legends or scriptures. It is extending of meaning to unknown regions, which even the creator might not have thought. Anticipated or inadvertent meaning a critic derives from a work indicates liberty granted to him through the creator particularly in literature. It is an endeavor to speak loudly of the writer, the creator. Here, critic should observe restraint on indulgence in giving substance that irritates. Extended or stretched out import given to creative work hurts the true spirit a creator wishes to convey.

Ultimately, frustrating judgmental regions of the critic with or without finding flaws belong to the lovers of literature, who compliment or discard even critic’s views. If possible, a critic ought to avoid hypercritical opinions or impart extraneous connotations to the work. A creator is liable to make mistakes with regard to use of words but a critic if indulges in the joy of language, he is lost and the piece of art suffers. If he indulges in the pleasure of construction and deconstruction or goes deep into the philosophy of ideals and language, he makes a slightly irrelevant detour into creativity when not required.

Critic’s prudence is an invisible ornament that makes the subject of valuation significant. To reach understanding of the creator is a challenge to the critic and if he reaches, it turns out a challenge to the creator. It is at this stage that inherent flaws with regard to thought, style and phrase of creation stand revealed, because at this point, critical faculty visits pre-textual and post-textual provinces of creativity of both the creator and the critic.

‘Reader and the System’ as a sustenance to the critic and creator

It is better if one looks at the critic as a person of substance later. First, it is essential to know how he conducts himself through the labyrinth of artwork of different variety. At this moment, it is piece of literature that is important, for it connects man with society, nation and humanity in entirety. He is not only an individual, who understands a man as an identity but also as a dispersed postscript that connote the spirit, and perhaps, he, the creator takes a stand for different men at any given situation in time.

This assimilation with humankind is what the creator at one point of time yearns for and the critic helps through the lovers of creation to reach its real meaning. A critic not only enjoys a piece of writing but also if he identifies with the narrator, sets up a distinctive affiliation before he arrives at any judgment. It benefits but at the same time, it influences objectivity and so a biased or prejudiced appraisal is possible. To stay away from such drawbacks is not easy but in no way, it stops him from visiting pre-textual stage of creator if he can.

To judge a piece of writing or art is correct comprehension of person, theme, treatment and style that is not easy in crisis-filled situations. A critic is an absent creator and enjoyer of art. The eyes and knowledge he holds enter the field narrator, the writer or the artist created or constructed and feels indirect delight while he tries to find meaning. Naturally, one infers that he looks at the subject from varied angles with the help of knowledge he has in life regarding its lexical, mental, psychological, intellectual, religious and philosophical regions as well as man’s socio-economic and political thought.

Initially, a critic is unaware of the areas of work he confronts, and therefore, it is incumbent upon the critic to have total knowledge of nearly all the fields and if it is history and religion or biography he must have full knowledge of the backdrop and surroundings. Even understanding of scriptures depends upon the age and compilers or authors of that period, who wrote about the strengths, flaws and virtues of characters, power of the organism, spirit and conspiracies of age, life of people and culture together with the people aspirations. There is also likelihood of joy magic realism gives when hoary characters juxtapose with contemporary characters to interpret and define life. It is a situation when one begins to define ideals. It is a ticklish, uncomfortable and hazardous but motivating endeavour.

Every age carries its reserve of bystanders, spectators of intensity, intellectuals, readers, evaluators and teachers, who function as mirrors of times. They are, in truth, vital associates to understand literature and age. One also gets meaning of the text through the lovers of artworks, who bring to light past, present, and future, and miscellaneous contents from religious proclivities to philosophic expressions, and a reader personal response or reaction to a piece of creative work together with the critics, adds beauty, charm and import. At this stage, a critic ought to watch whether a reader or readers, reacts to something beyond the textual region.

At the outset, critics appeared to connect wires and jotted down the good and bad points, and apprised the lord of land who passed the judgment. More or less, it was appreciation of a situational crisis. The critical tradition passed through a long distance in time –from ancient times to contemporary age. Every age had a share of critical faculty whether in the West or in the East. However, the final arbiters were always the men in authority, who were responsible for recognition of talent of creative artists whether in music, painting or any other art. If every creation helps and inspires man to live unperturbed and pleasantly curious, it is an art. However, situation, range, scope, time, potential enlargement and constraints on any ingenious construction determine its significance. A critic goes through the word-creation or enjoys any work of art. Before doing so, a critic should equip himself with relevant knowledge and essential impressions and experiences, perhaps more than the creator should. Literature or any other work of art carries inherent traditions of inventing its path through the protectorates of lovers of art seeking pleasure in words, colours, melodies and any other construct.