October 9, 1984

T. brought up his opinion that my art (and my life) is based in negativism. That I reject, search for what is wrong, rather than concentrating on what is right. He calls this negativism, I call it skepticism (an honorable tradition). Art (and life) is inductive. It is only if you believe the world is already created that you could be deductive and positive. You would be sorting through what is already there trying to find the "good" and destroying the "bad." But the world is in a process of becoming, being created (with no end in sight) and so you must weigh new sensation as to whether it is "good" or "bad," and since you can never be sure you do not destroy the bad but make it neutral for the time being. That's not the same as destroying it. With new sensation, new experience what was good may turn out to be bad (not that it was bad but that it has become bad). To be deductive is to search for the "essence of expression" and to limit. To be inductive is to allow expression to take form and search for the adequate form among that expression. The adequate form is the form that is of use to you at that time (James). It may become inadequate (or ornate) later.

Where I depart from James is in his view of the spirit. He clings to theology as a system that works and is therefore adequate (as Hegel said, "if my servant believes in a God then there is a god because he needs it"). For me theology presents a prefabricated system that bypasses the most important part of being human -- perception. It is expression that can be bought part and parcel or whole. And as such makes man into a consumer.