the nature of culture! Even if an author creates for some superficial reason, like money, fame, or fear of punishment, these affect him on the surface only. No external reasons add talent to a work of art, but free inner speech or dialogue does. Again, the freedom of the author’s inner speech is crucial for the creative process. A creator is as talented as he is free.
Culture: Sum of Works and Beyond
We already touched upon the question of whether or not there is
an “art” as such, i.e., art beyond works of art. We assumed there
must paradoxically exist some generic thought patterns, some ideas
representing art. They exist, but one cannot point at such a pattern in
reality. They work as engines, producing new elements of humanity
such as thoughts, ideas, forms of expression and even new human
behavior. They cause an audience to become newly curious and
understand these new elements. How does this happen?
Let us explore some more phenomena. Ideas become developed and
refined when they are fixed into a form, a “work.” After that, they may
play an “instructive” role, either by becoming examples to follow or even
by being taught. But the most crucial role of a work of culture is not to be
an example. It is to provoke another creator to create. It could incite a
desire to understand, follow, go further, argue or criticize—generally
speaking, it induces dialogue. All this relates to the audience as well.
Let us take, for example, the so-called “culture of groups.”
Whatever their art forms are and at whatever level they exist, it is
necessary to stress that these forms have been and are being created.
After the creation, the “added culture” spreads into the vernacular,
becomes fixed in the written language, rituals, clothes, meals, and
so forth and, sooner or later, “fires back”—that is, new works of
art appear. These new works reflect the new stage of the group and
promote new forms of life. Novelty is a characteristic of culture, and
because of that, culture is exclusive purview of humanity.
Once again, culture is born of works of art, and gives birth to works of art but is not the same as the sum of those works. Even if we add ideas, names, literary personages, genres, theories, methods,
