Malcolm Schosha on tue 22 nov 05
Steve Irvine wrote:
from Igor Stravinsky: "A real tradition is not the relic of a past that is irretrievabley gone; it is
a living force that animates and informs the present... Far from implying the repetition of what has
been, tradition presupposes the reality of what endures. It appears as an heirloom, a heritage that
one receives on condition of making it bear fruit before passing it on to one's descendants."
......................................................
I have been thinking about this very point recently.
In Italy, at the end of every growing season, and after the harvest; the olive trees are pruned back severely, because olives only grow on new wood. Interesting.
Every generation of artists and craftspeople, and every new potter, is like new wood producing 'fruit'; but always remembering to produce what is eatable. The old wood supports the growth of the new wood, but only the new wood produces olives. Of course, innovation and tradition are completely compatible. Tradition is the living olive tree, which supports the growth of new olives. Why would anyone think that tradition is the enemy of new growth?
Malcolm Schosha
---------------------------------
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gjudson on tue 22 nov 05
Malcolm Schosha wrote:>
......................................................
>=20
> I have been thinking about this very point recently.
>=20
> In Italy, at the end of every growing season, and after the harvest; =
the
> olive trees are pruned back severely, because olives only grow on new
> wood. Interesting.
>=20
> Every generation of artists and craftspeople, and every new potter, =
is
> like new wood producing 'fruit'; but always remembering to produce =
what
> is eatable. The old wood supports the growth of the new wood, but only =
the
> new wood produces olives. Of course, innovation and tradition are
> completely compatible. Tradition is the living olive tree, which =
supports
> the growth of new olives. Why would anyone think that tradition is the
> enemy of new growth?
>=20
> Malcolm Schosha
I really like that thought. Maybe it is more than like--I resonate with =
it.
I thought it worthy of repeating! Hope you don't mind, just thought it
should not be missed.
Gay Judson, in San Antonio TX
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on wed 23 nov 05
Hi Steve, all...
The trouble is, 'traditions' seldom quite thoroughly inform, even by
'reverse engineering'
them.
I remember a story about a family who every christmas baked a Ham...it was
an old family tradition.
They would take a huge full ham, cut off a chunk, throw away the
rest, and bake the chunk. Everyone of course raved about how good it was.
New Brides leaned the tradition and their families cherished it as families
tend to do.
One day, some descendant found out about the origins of the tradition;
grandma was stupid, and not much of a cook, grandpa drank but worked at a
place that made Hams, so
wasteing
hams was no big deal to him, or her, and they had one ( "1" ) small baking
pan.
The largest tradition of all probably, is that of being uninformed.
If you can show me one ( "1" ) so-called 'tradition' where the hiers who
have recieved it are (in some reasonablke definition of the term, )
'informed', I am all ears...
I am not saying explicitly that heirs to 'traditions' are always thoroughly
uninformed, but I surmise, generally, that they almost always are nearly so,
or are uninformed to some meaningful extent with respect TO the subject in
other terms than social. or what the 'tradition' is to them, is not at all
what it began as or had been in it's original context.
If the hiers to some condition, method, identity, praxis, station, or mode
or manner
of something are 'really'
informed,
and accept the 'tradition' on the basis of it's merits because they are
informed, maybe
it is, or is not ( in the usual sense, ) a 'tradition'...afterall...?
Are there not different kinds of traditions, in this regard?
Or, maybe, just what is a 'tradition' exactly? a rote inheritance? an
obligeing acquiescence to second-hand rote or to the social adhesion of
qiasi-discontinuous groups? Or how do
we tell if something is 'really' a cogent appreciation of some order of
'why'
something is done a certain way, verses a subjegation to the internalized
emotional entanglements of "that" it is done a certain way?
Just museing...
...what would be some examples of 'a living force that animates and informs
the present'?
DNA?
Lol...
Love,
Phil
Las Vegas
> Steve Irvine wrote:
>
> from Igor Stravinsky: "A real tradition is not the relic of a past that is
irretrievabley gone; it is
> a living force that animates and informs the present... Far from implying
the repetition of what has
> been, tradition presupposes the reality of what endures. It appears as an
heirloom, a heritage that
> one receives on condition of making it bear fruit before passing it on to
one's descendants."
Lee Love on wed 23 nov 05
Malcolm Schosha wrote:
Every generation of artists and craftspeople, and every new potter, is
> like new wood producing 'fruit'; but always remembering to produce what
> is eatable. The old wood supports the growth of the new wood, but only the
> new wood produces olives. Of course, innovation and tradition are
> completely compatible. Tradition is the living olive tree, which supports
> the growth of new olives. Why would anyone think that tradition is the
> enemy of new growth?
It is a sad culture (and individual) that has no tradition.
Gary Snyder's poem Axe Handles relates to your quote Malcolm:
One afternoon the last week in April
Showing Kai how to throw a hatchet
One-half turn and it sticks in a stump.
He recalls the hatchet-head
Without a handle, in the shop
And go gets it, and wants it for his own
A broken off axe handle behind the door
Is long enough for a hatchet,
We cut it to length and take it
With the hatchet head
And working hatchet, to the wood block.
There I begin to shape the old handle
With the hatchet, and the phrase
First learned from Ezra Pound
Rings in my ears!
"When making an axe handle
the pattern is not far off."
And I say this to Kai
"Look: We'll shape the handle
By checking the handle
Of the axe we cut with--"
And he sees. And I hear it again:
It's in Lu Ji's Wên Fu, fourth century
A.D. "Essay on Literature" -- in the
Preface: "In making the handle
Of an axe
By cutting wood with an axe
The model is indeed near at hand."
My teacher Shih-hsiang Chen
Translated that and taught it years ago
And I see Pound was an axe
Chen was an axe, I am an axe
And my son a handle, soon
To be shaping again, model
And tool, craft of culture,
How we go on.
--
Lee Love
in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://seisokuro.blogspot.com/ My Photo Logs
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