Maclaren asks:
"'Could Bach have loved his God so magnificently without being inwardly afraid of Him?'"
-Poul Anderson, The Enemy Stars, 10, p. 76.
So are both mortality and fear necessary for creativity? If you are on the same part of Earth as me, then sleep on it.
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I can see great men and geniuses, feeling pressed by how limited their time is, exerting themselves to the utmost to achieve or express what they feel driven to do. I can thus far agree with Aycharaych.
And a man as devout as Johan Sebastian Bach would fear God, but not in a cringing, craven, servile manner. The fear we should feel is comprised of reverent awe and wonder at the infinitely transcendent glory of God, who spoke not only thru thunder and earthquakes but also thru the still, small voice Elijah heard.
Sean
A good deal of human culture is the side-effect of our own consciousness of our mortality -- which in turn is the side-effect of an intellect we developed because of survival/reproduction positive consequences.
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