Monday, August 22

it's beyond reasoning

A great work of art is like a dream; for all its apparent obviousness it does not explain itself and is never unequivocal. A dream never says: "You ought," or: "This is the truth." It presents an image in much the same way as nature allows a plant to grow, and we must draw our own conclusions...

This is why every great work of art is objective and impersonal, but none the less profoundly moves us each and all. And this is also why the personal life of the poet cannot be held essential to his art -- but at most a help or a hindrance to his creative task... His personal career may be inevitable and interesting, but it does not explain the poet.

-- Carl Gustav Jung Modern Man in Search of a Soul
Translated by W.S. Dell and Cary F. Baynes