Pear-Shaped People...and Me

We are shaped 
                      and fashioned 
                                        by what we love
                                                                 - Goethe 
What does that make me?
                                      laurel & hardy
                                      anna karina
                                      sun ra
                                      william burroughs
                                      horace silver
                                      jean-luc godard
                                      raymond chandler
                                      max ernst
                                      daphne oram...

By what we love...
                             music
                             film
                             art
                             literature
                             country walks
                             the sea
                             mountains

No-no...not specific enough...

They say you can't judge a book by it's cover. But you can...
                                                                                                   

                                                   

Can you judge a person by the books they own? 

Did the books shape the person or the person shape the contents of the shelf?

They're not complete idiots because they read best-selling trash. They're incomplete idiots. As we all are. Because no matter how idiotic we may be in some areas, others make up for them. In theory. Although there are complete idiots in the world. You just hope you never meet them. 

Some people who read trash may be kind, generous, open-hearted and good-humoured. You may not wish to be stuck in a lift with them, though. Unless they're professional psychiatrists, in which case they may save you from breaking down in panic. Unless they're mind doctors who are also claustrophobic...

A man saves you from drowning and takes you back to his house where you see just two bookshelves filled with Dan Brown and J. K. Rowling. Then you notice JLS and Rihanna CDs by the player. What do you do? You pray he doesn't play either of them because you won't be able to deal with your conflicting feelings towards him...

When Goethe spoke he no doubt had poetry and nature in mind, not Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Kanye West. Should his spirit return today, he would no doubt still say the same thing whilst observing the behaviour and aspirations of some people. 

You are what you eat? People 'eat' shitty books, films and music. There are government health warnings on cigarette packets. Why are there none on the mind-poisoning culture people consume? Because it's 'only' Music, TV, Literature, Film and magazines. It does no harm. It probably benefits governments.

Were some people stupid, vacuous children who turned into bling-worshipping, celebrity-sucking, cloth-eared idiots when they started to love what they do? Yes. What they love simply shapes them more into what they were destined to be. By 21 they're fully-formed. 

By the time I got to the 3rd year of Secondary School I was a bright kid disguised as an idiot. It was all I knew how to be in the face of authority. I may still be an idiot. But my books, records and DVDs disguise the fact...