David Deuchar, A Collection of Etchings after the most eminent Masters of the Dutch and Flemish Schools, Edinburgh 1803, vol. III
People do things because they like the game, the process. If you ask any writer or an artist they would tell you that they are hooked on the process, but they hesitate and say that the feedback, the validation is also very important. I argue that feedback is also part of the process, inseparable from the creation. Writing is a way to relate to others and often you reach the Zen state where what others say doesn’t matter. Still the game of human experience is a conversation. So even at the point where you no longer care for the reactions, you are still relating to others. People invent God for this very reason, to have a conversation, a dialogue. There is a proverbial ball in everything we do. Often this is a material ball bouncing from one to the other. Often there is a virtual ball of ideas resonating from our imagination and back. But there is always a ball to pass and this process is the means and the goal. Feedback is inseparable part of the process; it’s always part of the process even when we no longer need it.
Image licensed courtesy of Picture Library of the Royal Academy of Arts
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