I've been reading The Philosophy of Money by Georg Simmel on and off for the past six months. There are books that appealed to my intellect and those that appealed to me on an emotional level but none--before I read this one--that appealed to both at the same time. And, yes, the intellect-emotion dichotomy is problematic and I have written about it before, but this book's intellectual and emotional effect on me was tangible.
One of the ideas in the book is how as production has become more specialized it has become more divorced from our personalities. The products of our labour don't reflect our personalities because there are so many other people, machines and processed involved in their production. On the other hand, with art, the artist pours herself into her creations, and is attached to them like no worker is attached to the fruits of his labour. Art doesn't just reflect the personality of the artist, it is through art that the artist's personality comes to life. Art can be seen as the extension of the artist's personality, that part of her personality which has escaped her bodily form.
And, suddenly, it occurred to me why novels or other works of arts (to my very limited knowledge) seldom have more than one author. Collaboration doesn't work with a creation that is so personal. A collaborative effort inevitable entails compromise and surrender. In research collaborations, the junior collaborator has to often submit to the will of the senior, the meek collaborator to the more assertive one. In the context of art, such a collaboration would lead to the artist's alienation from her work of art. Which is why writing a novel is such a lonely process--because no collaboration is possible. Its the same with writing a PhD. An interesting question is why is a PhD structured as though it is a work of art rather than a work of research? Maybe that could be a topic for a future blog.
One of the ideas in the book is how as production has become more specialized it has become more divorced from our personalities. The products of our labour don't reflect our personalities because there are so many other people, machines and processed involved in their production. On the other hand, with art, the artist pours herself into her creations, and is attached to them like no worker is attached to the fruits of his labour. Art doesn't just reflect the personality of the artist, it is through art that the artist's personality comes to life. Art can be seen as the extension of the artist's personality, that part of her personality which has escaped her bodily form.
And, suddenly, it occurred to me why novels or other works of arts (to my very limited knowledge) seldom have more than one author. Collaboration doesn't work with a creation that is so personal. A collaborative effort inevitable entails compromise and surrender. In research collaborations, the junior collaborator has to often submit to the will of the senior, the meek collaborator to the more assertive one. In the context of art, such a collaboration would lead to the artist's alienation from her work of art. Which is why writing a novel is such a lonely process--because no collaboration is possible. Its the same with writing a PhD. An interesting question is why is a PhD structured as though it is a work of art rather than a work of research? Maybe that could be a topic for a future blog.
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