Where have all the muses gone?
The Guardian book blog posed this question today, in the wake of the death of Joan Hunter Dunn, the inspiration and subject of John Betjeman's poem, A Subaltern's Love Song.
Where have all the muses gone? Traditionally the Muses were goddesses who inspired the creative process. Whilst the Ancient Greeks believed in the literal existence of the Muses, in modern times they are a metaphor for inspiration in general. "My muse has left me" is another way of saying that you have writer's block, and are lacking inspiration.
Sometimes however, a muse is real. It is something that moves an artist to create. For an artist like Monet, his muse was the action of light on objects, something he strove to capture and recreate in his paintings. Most commonly, it is a person. And as the Guardian article points out, it is most often a woman.
Why should this be? Are there no male muses? Do men not inspire creativity? Or is this merely a symptom that for many years, the arts were not seen as a "fit and proper" career for a woman, and so the majority of artists were men?
Why should we know who an artist's muse is anyway? The act of inspiration is often a private and personal affair, only the created product is intended for consumption. Perhaps today writers and artists are more reticent to reveal their muse, for fear of embarrassing the muse, embarrassing themselves, maybe even from fear of losing their muse? Who knows. To all the muses out there, known and unknown, I salute you.
Where have all the muses gone? Traditionally the Muses were goddesses who inspired the creative process. Whilst the Ancient Greeks believed in the literal existence of the Muses, in modern times they are a metaphor for inspiration in general. "My muse has left me" is another way of saying that you have writer's block, and are lacking inspiration.
Sometimes however, a muse is real. It is something that moves an artist to create. For an artist like Monet, his muse was the action of light on objects, something he strove to capture and recreate in his paintings. Most commonly, it is a person. And as the Guardian article points out, it is most often a woman.
Why should this be? Are there no male muses? Do men not inspire creativity? Or is this merely a symptom that for many years, the arts were not seen as a "fit and proper" career for a woman, and so the majority of artists were men?
Why should we know who an artist's muse is anyway? The act of inspiration is often a private and personal affair, only the created product is intended for consumption. Perhaps today writers and artists are more reticent to reveal their muse, for fear of embarrassing the muse, embarrassing themselves, maybe even from fear of losing their muse? Who knows. To all the muses out there, known and unknown, I salute you.
Why does my Muse only speak when she is unhappy?
She does not, I only listen when I am unhappy.
She does not, I only listen when I am unhappy.
Stevie Smith
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