Art

[Rachel-K]

I certainly don't want to over simplify any thread of the novel, but I wonder how we, as readers, feel about the art we experience in the novel? How does it fit in against the backdrop of war?

What do you make of each of these characters as artists?

What do each of our characters think of "Art" in its biggest sense?

[Kat727]

from the summary i read of the book it had me expecting more art than there actually was. i think that art was important to elinor as a way to escape and trying to disappoint her family. i think most of the things that elinor did were as a result  of her family issues. at the beginning of the book art seemed very important to paul and it was important to really be thought of as talented, but once he started serving for war efforts i think he really lost a lot of his ambition for art. and as for neville you know that he is proud of his fame from his art, but i never really got an idea of how he really felt about art.

[Rachel-K]

Hi Kat,

I think I had a similar impression--but then found that art did seem to grow later in the novel. I have to say I was very happy that Paul seemed to "find himself" with a few paintings that he thought he couldn't show toward the end of the novel--that all of his ambitions about being an artist seemed to evaporate and at the same time he seemed to be painting with a real fever.

Did it strike you how unfair it is that Neville is both so shallow and so talented at the same time?

[Kat727]

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rkubie wrote:

Hi Kat,

I think I had a similar impression--but then found that art did seem to grow later in the novel. I have to say I was very happy that Paul seemed to "find himself" with a few paintings that he thought he couldn't show toward the end of the novel--that all of his ambitions about being an artist seemed to evaporate and at the same time he seemed to be painting with a real fever.

Did it strike you how unfair it is that Neville is both so shallow and so talented at the same time?

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sorry i was m.i.a. for a little while. that's a really good question it got me thinking. i wonder though if the talent made him shallow or was he shallow to start with? i think that you really don't want to see a shallow person so talented because you know it's just going to inflate their ego even more.