The Tolkien Template - Carrying on the torch of mythology and folklore

[Cúdae]

The balance I spoke of in my last post needs something to illustrate it better than music and Tolkien. Maybe some van Gogh and a book regarded as not as great as Tolkien's? And perhaps I could throw in some grammar?

Let's take balance in a book first. I am going to use the example of the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander (with all due respect to Mr. Alexander and his writing). Generally, these books are not regarded as great as those by Tolkien. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which being the clear Tolkien influences, but I am only going to deal with the balance. In these books, the past (the history of Prydain, of Taran, of Dallban, etc) is indefinite while the future (Taran lives happily ever after basically and the impression that Prydain has few troubles afterward) is definite. This creates an affect something like x=y in mathematics. While in Tolkien's books, both the past and the future are indefinite- x=x.

Now I'm going to use the paintings of Vincent van Gogh as an example. He is an artist much loved, studied, and looked up to in many countries. His paintings are balanced. What is on one side is balanced by something on the other. Or, what is presented is balanced by something (opinion, reaction, etc.) in the viewer's mind. An example would be his painting Starry Night. The stars in the sky balance on another out. The deep colors are balanced by the opinion (be it good, bad, or indifferent) or reaction in the viewer's mind to those colors. The swirly, dark, castle-like thing on the left hand side is balanced by the sky opposite it. This all creates a balanced effect of something like x+y+z=x+y+z.

Now let's go to grammar! Correct sentence structure with a subject and a verb is balanced. Example: He ran. He is the subject which is balanced by the verb ran. The sentence is correct grammar. Take this sentence for a more complicated example: The rabbit scampered across the road. The subject rabbit is balanced by the verb scampered. The two words the are balanced by each other and across and road balance each other.

If that made any sense whatsoever, it will be a miracle.

...remember, your relationship with a work of art can almost be like a private conversation ...

Alright, so again I can put into action my balance idea. You can see a painting and dislike it because it does not balance in your mind and/or on the canvas. You can walk away from a private conversation feeling as though something is missing because the conversation took an unbalanced turn or maybe because the conversation ended without definition. This means that you relationship with art that does not please you can be very like to that of a conversation that ends without definition. Or it can be very like to seeing a painting which does please you and walking away from a conversation feeling very satisfied.

Logic hasn't gone anywhere, it is merely a different branch of logic that is used in art forms.