The Religion of Reality : Inquiry into the Self, Art and Transcendence - Didier Maleuvre

This book by Didier Maleuvre is a discussion on religion, reality, fantasy and how this impacts art and the person experiencing all of these different aspects of life. My work has strong ties to religion and belief, being self-portraits of myself as Greek Goddesses, and on a more personal note, myself being an Atheist and therefore I do not have the promise of saviour or higher, protective being to fulfil that need. I hope that this book will prove influential to me and further my understanding of belief and how it has affected humanity.

I will be providing quotes or paraphrases below from this book, which will be accompanied by my own thoughts and notes regarding the matter. This will serve as a continuous line of my thought process and keep order to these points Maleuvre has brought up.

• "The modern age is said to have 'disenchanted' the world ... by which is meant that the modern mind does not believe in objects, processes, or phenomena that transcend or escape physical, logical or rational necessity ... a bolt of thunder is no angry diety but a sudden release of electromagnetic energy due to measurable changes in the atmospheric pressure"
  - This alone demonstrates just how much the human mind has progressed since we believed in these deities. Of course, it's hard to come to a conclusion over whether this progression is a good thing for both us and the world. This progression has caused us to see everything in the world logically; no longer explaining the simple things in life with something fantastical. I think my images help a viewer return to this point of view, where the explanation for the things in life comes from something mythical and mysterious.
  
  
  
• "To be modern is to connect these phenomena with factual objective causes, rather than to allege the working of extranatural unknowable intentions"
  - This is interesting to think about because we must understand that when people believed in these supernatural forces, they didn't always think it was for good. If there is Thunder, Zeus was angry. There was a lot of fear caused by their beliefs. Now, living in this modern world with modern explanations, I have the opportunity to explore these personalities and figures without fear, and with the comfort of knowing they are simply stories and myths. It is the same as with all religions and beliefs, they control you and what you do. That doesn't mean religion is bad detrimental, only that it influences ones actions and the way we think about the world. If I were living in ancient Greek I would not feel it appropriate to play dress up as these goddesses as it would likely insult them and their followers, and so I would fear it.
  
  
  
• "What is the meaning of life? How must I live? What is the significance of my death? The life of the mind become modern on the day these questions began to be asked ... This, however, means that the modern intellect came to life circa 400 B.C in Athens.
  - In this case, and like all words, the term 'modern' is evolving with us. We certainly wouldn't call the way of thinking in 400 B.C Athens to be modern. And yet we must make exceptions, for as Maleuvre has noted, we apparently thought the same way about ourselves and life. We have been existential, perhaps, for thousands of years. Intelligence is relative to the time we live in, and yet these thoughts are persistent throughout humanity, a constant.
  
  
  
• "To repeat an idea is not to think. True thought occurs when a person understands and appropriates the idea ... 'He who learns but does not think is lost' "
  - perhaps not directly important to my project but I found this quote, ironically, thought-provoking. It highlights and made me realise further that the research I am doing here and within other texts, and bringing them all together to understand the project, myself and my mind is key to finding the core of the project.
  
  
  
• "Unlike the scholastic philosopher, the modern thinker is not concerned with tradition, but, like the artist, with originality"
  - We want to evolve and bring new ideas and entities into the world, we don't want to remain complacent with what we have. The artist, as the example given here, is a key reminder of this. We strive to make something new. As time progresses it becomes harder, and so we innovate. People create new pigments of colour, new techniques to use. Modern thinkers, whoever they may be, are not dissimilar, according to Maleuvre.
  
  
  
• "Before it seeded into philosophical language, the idea to pair self with originality, and to sanctify their union before society, came from the side of artists ... it is they who, during the renaissance, arose out of anonymity and service, broke from the guilds, and concocted the strange notions that one's work and activity are vehicles of character and personal expression; that artworks are tied to their markers instead of to their patrons on beneficiaries or institutions; and lastly that the creative person has spiritual rights over the dictates of patronage and religion"
  - Again, solidifying the notion that the way we think today has largely been influenced by the artist. I found it interesting to learn that during the renaissance artists changed the way that one thought about art - it no longer became just an expression of the commissioner, and as such using the hand of the artist as their tool, but instead, the artist worked with their medium as a way to express themselves. If I understand correctly, the artist was also the one most trusted with expressing religion and those that follow it, due to their spiritual proximity to such figures.
  
  
  
• Petrarch: "Everyone should write in his own style"
  Maleuvre: "The personal, in other words, demands liberating because it is itself worthy"
  - Everybody's inner thoughts, demons and pride should be shared in a way that they wish to, without copying another, and being as true to oneself as you can be.
  
  
  
• "What elevates us, Pico argued, is our ability to shape and improve on our lives, our free will, our creative engagement with nature"
  - This is what makes us human. I think that this is a process that we will be growing into until the day we die, learning about ourselves and how we can better us. I also think this is one of the root causes of my project, the need for a better self.
  
  
  
• "No eternal essence but self-transformation is our nature; and self-transformation leads us ever more upward towards appreciation and comprehension of the universe."
  - changing oneself and evolving through our life is a positive thing. However, I think it is also my appreciation for the universe that makes me feel the need to escape. I very much appreciate the place in which we live, and the galaxies and incredible, beautiful things around us, that to watch others and myself harming that place, hurts.
  
  

Overall, I think this book has helped me understand more about the mind and how it works in accordance with belief, art, reality and fantasy. It's given me a lot to think about, especially in terms of finding the root of my project.


















available at: https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.uos.idm.oclc.org/lib/ucsl/detail.action?docID=3134742