Sunday, July 15, 2007

james agee/walker evans








"But there must be an end to this: a sharp end and clean silence: a steep and most serious withdrawal: a new and more succint beginning: " (James Agee).

"They are at an immesurable disadvantage in a world which is run, and in which they are hurt, and in which they might be cured, by 'knowledge' and by 'ideas': and to 'consciousness' or 'knowledge' in its usages in personal conduct and in human relationships, and to those unlimited worlds of the senses, the remembrance, the mind and the heart which, beyond that of their own existence, are the only human hope, dignity, solace, increasement, and joy, they are all but totally blinded. The ability to try to understand existence, the ability to try to recognize the wonder and responsibility of one's own existence, the ability to know even fractionally the almost annihilating beauty, ambiguity, darkness, and horror which swarm every instant of every consciousness, the ability to try to accept, or the ability to try to defend one's self, or the ability to dare to try to assist others; all such as these, of which most human beings are cheated of their potentials, are, in most of those who even begin to discern or wish for them, the gifts of thefts of economic privilege, and are available to members of these leanest classes only by the rare and irrelevant miracle of born and surviving 'talent'" (James Agee).




3 comments:

* said...

the photographs are beautiful. And he says some very important things there below, so I must get hold of this book.

Nico said...

YES Antonia, both things are great. I didn't know about this book, but it is very impressive. And Walker Evans is from St. Louis!

Anonymous said...

You write very well.