Hopeless artistic ambition can itself give a life its meaning
Evidence
We were utterly hopeless, completely out of our depth, there was not a snowballâs chance in hell of anything coming of this, we wouldnât even be good enough to perform at a school party, but although this was the reality we never experienced it as such. On the contrary, this was what gave our lives meaning. It wasnât my music we played, but Jan Vidarâs, and it went against everything I believed in, yet this is what I trusted. The intro to âSmoke on the Waterâ, the very incarnation of stupidity, the very antithesis of cool, was what I sat practising at Ve School in 1983: first the guitar riff, then the cymbal, chicka-chicka, chicka-chicka, chicka-chicka, chicka-chicka, then the bass drum, boom, boom, boom, then the snare, tick, tick, tick, and then the daft bass line started, where we often looked at each other with a smile while nodding our heads and shaking our legs as the chorus, played completely out of synch, took off. â Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 344
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the earlier âfeelings versus techniqueâ theme and Knausgaardâs recurring motif of the unfulfilled adolescent dream carried forward into selfhood. â connects to: Intense devotion to art can consume a writerâs entire life â Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life inâŠ, 558; Lifeâs meaning cannot be found in external achievements alone. â Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 48; Diaries can represent an attempt to create life under despair. â Thomas Mallon, A Book of Ones Own People and TheirâŠ, 715 (+3 more)
Related
- A lifeâs success can be measured by unbroken appetite for living, not by achievement (similarity 0.86)
- Despairing art engages the world only to confirm its own bleak hypothesis (similarity 0.83)
Broader Connections
- Intense devotion to art can consume a writerâs entire life
#expands(0.70) â Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life inâŠ, 558 - Lifeâs meaning cannot be found in external achievements alone.
#corroborates(0.60) â Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 48 - Diaries can represent an attempt to create life under despair.
#exemplifies(0.55) â Thomas Mallon, A Book of Ones Own People and TheirâŠ, 715