The Last Summary
Teacher: Go ahead, Gamma.
Gamma: Look, uh . . . remember how we were talking about the
president and how his journalist-made image is real to us while we
know nothing about the physical man? I now think that everything
we love or hate in this life is clarified and taught by the art.
Alpha: Told you.
Gamma: No, not like you said. It is not about teaching, exactly.
Huckleberry Finn made us feel kind of guilty about the enslaved
Jim. Do you see the difference?
Alpha: Between what and what?
Kappa: Between knowledge and feelings! Understand?
Teacher: So, Gamma, are you ready for your statement?
Gamma: Almost. It feels kind of scary. Let’s talk a little more.
Alpha: Are you scared of your own fantasy?
Gamma: You bet. OK, we are sure now that arts do have a big influence
on us. They form the way we think and the way we feel.
Beta: They actually form the way itself.
Delta: What is the way?
Beta: It is talking. . . . It is the process of talking both to others and to ourselves.
Kappa: The arts transport actors into all our conversations.
Beta: And ideas also are transported.
Gamma: And scenarios too.
Teacher: Do you think you have proven this?
Beta: No, we have not, but these ideas have just emerged! And I can’t
put forth anything else.
Gamma: OK, I get it. Our minds are entirely shaped by the arts.
Teacher: Wow!
