I had planned on posting a video from a magic performance I presented at the Left Forum yesterday, but I’m having technical difficulty, so until I’m able to post the video I’d like to share with you something said at the plenary session by one of the participants, the popular musician and revolutionary, Immortal Technique.
His remark was in the context of addressing the possibility of forming a truly viable leftist party in the United States, given that so many recent efforts seemed to have been failures with little impact.
His reply was this: “The reason that I’ve achieved the position that I have is because I have failed. Failed over and over. More importantly, I’ve failed many more times in my art than most people have even tried to take a chance. There has to be space for failure.”
There’s almost no way for an artist to be good without first being bad. Artists need the space and permission (from themselves!) to be bad. Each painful lousy performance or draft is one step closer to getting it where it wants to be.
As Samuel Beckett said, “Try again, Fail again. Fail Better.”
Wonderful message for anyone involved in creative arts. In fact, it’s a good message for everyone.
Thanks, Moon. I don’t think I was able to do *anything* creative until I began to come to terms with the feelings that I experienced when I thought I had failed. It’s the rare teacher that addresses an approach to dealing with perceived failure, and yet I think it’s one of the fundamentals of learning a craft.
Dear Jack,
This excellent! Thank YOU Thank you Samuel Beckett!.
AS always your biggest fan, Miss Donna