The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum

=> Re: with all due respect to ALL critical Assyrians, BUT....

Re: with all due respect to ALL critical Assyrians, BUT....
Posted by Emil (Guest) squaremoon@emilsdiary.com - Tuesday, November 8 2005, 0:16:11 (CET)
from 24.148.65.193 - 24-148-65-193.grn-bsr1.chi-grn.il.cable.rcn.com Commercial - Windows XP - Netscape
Website: http://www.emilsdiary.com/
Website title: Square Moon Diary of Emil Keliane

"...that we are dead and buried...that the best we can do in the modern era is make erstaz copies of what we had NO hand in making or uncovering...that we simply run behind other's and ask permission to copy what used to be ours...how much more vital and alive we would be in THIS age if we allowed our artists scope to interpret our past history...how much more interesting it would be if we had not only ancient originals, but modern ones as well..."

It's pretty interesting now that you've got me thinking about it that while most cultures possess a continuous and artistic narrative/depiction of their history, wars, successes, generational mindsets, faiths, etc. via painting, sculpture, film, photography, poetry, mythology even, and fiction, we seem to have collectively viewed the arts as a waste of time. I mean, I can understand this in some ways- we've always focused so much on "surviving" as immigrants that we seem to have overlooked the joys of "living". We want our children to make "money", not "history/art".
Luckily, we seem to have amassed quite a collection in music- traditional songs of love, marriage, loss, etc. ( I have to admit, though, that I have yet to get into Assyrian music. This doesn't mean it's not good, or pertinent to our experience. It's just that Assyrian music always depressed me, even as a child in Iran... But fortunately our tastes have a tendency to shift in time. I remain open, Jeff!)
I know from experience that "making" art is a quiet joy founded on courage, faith, hard work, and a perpetual sacrifice of time/money/relationships. It is a full-time passion.
I'm not complaining. Writing saved my life by turning my reality into a "story". My diary transformed my personal experience/anguish/exhiliration into a metaphor.
There was and has never been any "money" in it, and oftentimes it was a lonely undertaking, and cyclically earned me half-hearted criticism from family and friends because according to them I was "wasting" my time.
Look, it's great had I been a doctor, a lawyer, even a dentist. I would have thrilled so many people in my family, not to mention our "community". Our mothers swoon over "professionals".
But what about the Assyrian artist?
It's a thankless job, obviously. Just listen to Farid's experience and Maggie's friend- the fashion designer.
What a shame.
Oh, but they're lauded and praised so long as they are "of some use" and "cater" to "this or that committee's" stringent guidelines and (myopic) "way of thought", but as soon as he/she-the artist- shows a modicum of autonomy, reveals an independent opinion or insight he is an instant "embarrassment" to "our people"!
The Assyrian artist is not Assyria's loyal and faithful servant.
Just as our mothers and religious figures are not our servants. This does not make them any less deserving of our respect.
And quite frankly, neither does Dr. George or Dr. Picasso, Dr. Monet, Dr. Nin, Dr. Madonna, or Dr. Oprah have a say in how we Assyrian artists "choose" to finetune and donate/sell/share "our" craft.
And yet, despite our personal and artistic, financial and philosophical disenchantments we are moved to continue "creating". This remains the greatest mystery of "art" in my opinion- not what Sargon wore, or which way Shamirum brushed her pubis.
And not only this, but we continue to move "creatively" in the direction of our heritage, no matter how iconoclastic we may be, no matter how tenuous support from that "heritage".
Farid sculpts his "interpretation" of "our" historical figures.
Adoni and cohorts make films about Assyrian characters, which apparently get better with time and exprience. (Go guys!)
My friend Shammi- though queer and an "obomination"- passionately makes Assyrian film-shorts, even travels to Iraq!
And I, despite every voice that screams against it, publish my personal narrative online because among a thousand and one reasons for doing so, waiting for someone else to do it "for me" got boring fast!
Instead of waiting, "praying", and hoping for an Assyrian diarist and creative/queer model I "became" one!
So, whether you and I like it or not, whether you and I think it's "good" or not, whether you and I agree or not, we're Assyrian and human, thankless artists who don't claim to "speak FOR all Assyrians" but in the process of doing what we are meant to do couldn't help but stand out in a culture that tells us "not to", speak up in a culture that tells us "not to", be ourselves in a culture that tells us "not to".



---------------------


The full topic:



Content-length: 5263
Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Accept: text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5
Accept-charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
Accept-encoding: gzip,deflate
Accept-language: en-us,en;q=0.5
Connection: keep-alive
Cookie: *hidded*
Host: www.insideassyria.com
Keep-alive: 300
Referer: http://www.insideassyria.com/rkvsf4/rkvsf_core.php?Re_with_all_due_respect_to_ALL_critical_Assyrians_BUT-cfgu.IJdj.REPLY
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax)



Powered by RedKernel V.S. Forum 1.2.b9