Art as conjuror of the dead.— Art also fulfils the task of preservation and even of brightening up extinguished and faded memories; when it accomplishes this task it weaves a rope round the ages and causes their spirits to return. It is, certainly, only a phantom-life that results therefrom, as out of graves, or like the return in dreams of our beloved dead, but for some moments, at least, the old sensation lives again and the heart beats to an almost forgotten time. Hence, for the sake of the general usefulness of art, the artist himself must be excused if he does not stand in the front rank of the enlightenment and progressive civilisation of humanity; all his life long he has remained a child or a youth, and has stood still at the point where he was overcome by his artistic impulse; the feelings of the first years of life, however, are acknowledged to be nearer to those of earlier times than to those of the present century. Unconsciously it becomes his mission to make mankind more childlike; this is his glory and his limitation.
- Friedrich Nietzsche, from Human, All Too Human
(via Stylo)
In frankness, I'm not that sharp regarding hauntology, but my muted understanding would suggest that this passage, by presenting a positive outlook on the past's spectres, would challenge the standard view you have spun.
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of Kubrick's remark whilst making The Shining, that every ghost story is an optimistic one, since anything that suggests something beyond death has to be positive.
Yes I think you have misunderstood the idea of hauntology - it's not a critique of spectrality... if anything, it's about the inevitability of hauntedness (both on the personal level and on a cultural level)... it's about listening to ghosts... allowing yourself (as an artist) to be imaginatively open to these kind of voices and echoes.... letting them pass through you.... because, to the extent that we all have memories, what choice to do we have in the matter, anyway? these ghosts will come sooner or later.
ReplyDeleteI see hauntology (talking now specifically about the musicians) as a kind of "good retro" to the bad kind.... rather like there is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol
So is there a band awash with the memories of past acts, who also escaped them by demonstrating the music of the future?
ReplyDeleteI can think of one clear example. Give me an H, give me an A, give me a P...