Visibility

When I first read this article I was very confused. I had never read Dante's Inferno, so I was confused on what the book was referencing. I was also confused by the sections in a different language, and how Ignatious of Loyola came into play. I did understand  how the reading was questioning the inspiration of artists. It reminds me of a poet, Samuel Coleridge, I studied in english last year.  He was an English poet in the 19th century. He was known to take opium in order to produce his ideas for poetry. One poem in particular called Kubla Khan was inspired from a dream he had while high on opiates. It made me wonder about the many ways an artist goes about producing work.

The reading talks about taking an idea and putting it into words or a visual, and questions where these ideas come from. It is also very interesting how many different ways an artist can go about visually representing their ideas and thoughts. "We may distinguish between two different types of imaginative process: the one that starts with the word and arrives at the visual image, and the one that starts with the visual image and arrives at its verbal expression" (83). I would disagree and argue that there are more than just these two ways of imagining. One can see a visual whether it was a landscape, or an event, or a thing, and have it inspire them or remind them of something else. Similarly for word to verbal expression. Many writers are inspired by other writing they read, and learn different techniques and styles.

I am personally a very big day dreamer and can relate to the idea of imagination"...stealing us away from the outer world and carrying us off into an inner one, so that even if a thousand trumpets were to sound we would not hear them..." (82). Sometime I get so wrapped up in a thought I forget where I am, or what I am doing. These dreams can feel very real and very detailed, but when I try to explain them or tell them to someone else, they seem to just blur together. Artists find a way to bridge the gap of these dreams and the tangible reality.