My kindred Mekas
The paper is taking on a very nice shape. I keep uncovering more great source material (curses to you, ILL, when I should be editing and trimming, you send me more distractions). Just the same, this answer merits repeating. Also, if any potentially rich patrons read this blog, please send Jonas Mekas money - help out Anthology and let him finish another film with footage from the last 25 years. This passage is so right on, I wish I had said it myself.
Q: In your writing and in your film the form of a journal or diary, is the central form. Why?
A: (Mekas) My theory regarding the emergence of the diaristic forms in the arts, in all of the arts, after WWII, is that we all got tired of invented stories. The gruesome realities of 1933 - 1944 have destroyed all our stories, or as Adorno said, poetry. All that we could still try to understand what was going on, what was real in our own story. Everything else seemed senseless, escapist, unreal. That's at least my personal interpretation of why I chose the diary form. My own story was even more complicated by the fact that very soon after my arrival in New York, I got totally involved in so many activities related to the avant-garde / independent film that I had left only little fragments of time for myself. The diary form suits perfectly when you have no time. You just make little notes, that's all. And that's what I've been doing.
posted by lmjasinski at 2:34 PM
