{"id":694,"date":"2023-11-02T14:56:58","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T18:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118st-fa23\/?p=694"},"modified":"2023-11-02T14:56:58","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T18:56:58","slug":"f-o-r-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.smith.edu\/wrt118st-fa23\/f-o-r-m\/","title":{"rendered":"F-O-R-M"},"content":{"rendered":"

What makes art what it is? Susan Sontag thinks the point of art lies within its form and not its content as she explains in her 1966 essay <\/span>Against Interpretation<\/span><\/i>. There\u2019s a lot of work made throughout history that proves the truth of this idea. One of my favorites is the work of writer, musician and visual artist Patti Smith. In 1975, Smith released her intense 8 song debut album <\/span>Horses<\/span><\/i>. The opener of the album is a song called \u2018Gloria: in excelsis deo\u2019 which is actually a cover of \u2018Gloria\u2019 written by Van Morrison in 1964. <\/span>Susan Sontag\u2019s conviction that art is about form rather than content is exemplified through Patti Smith\u2019s \u2018Gloria: in excelsis deo\u2019 through the way that gender, vocal delivery and historical context give this song its iconic presence in rock and roll history.<\/span><\/p>\n

In her essay Sontag explains the way that the interpretation of art can translate to its constriction. She says that to delineate a specific meaning from a work instead of simply experiencing the work as a boundless expression is robbing it of its true purpose. Sontag in particular talks about how <\/span>\u201creducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that [tames] the work of art\u201d (Sontag 5). <\/span>And that instead discourse around art \u201cshould be to show how it is what it is\u201d or in other words its form (Sontag 10). <\/span>Part of a song’s form is who sings it.<\/span> The feeling this song conveys when sung by Patti Smith is different and arguably more potent than when sung by Van Morrison.\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018Gloria\u2019 is a song about a woman. The vocalist sings about having an intense desire for this woman. <\/span>Oh she looks so good. She looks so fine. Oh I\u2019m gonna make her mine. <\/span><\/i>The lyrics follow a loose objectifying trajectory and certainly misogynistic attitude, pretty normal for a lot of songs at the time. Of course Van Morrison is a musical legend and great performer but Smith\u2019s presence as a woman and boundary pushing artist at the time singing essentially the same song gives it layers of subtext. Just the change in who (form) the same words (content) are coming from gives this song a specific and complex presence as a piece of work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another aspect of the song’s \u2018form\u2019 is the delivery: not only <\/span>that<\/span><\/i> it is performed by Smith but <\/span>how<\/span><\/i> it is performed by Smith. <\/span>Sontag wrote in her essay that \u201creal art has the ability to make us nervous\u201d<\/span> (Sontag 5).<\/span> Good art pushes boundaries and pushing boundaries is pushing what is comfortable and therefore good art can cause discomfort. A lot of times what produces this vital discomfort comes from the quality of form, the way in which the work exists. <\/span>There\u2019s a section in the song where Smith sings repeated fragments of melody faster and faster and higher pitched and higher pitched<\/span>– Here she comes. <\/span><\/i>Walkin’ down the street, Here she comes. Comin’ through my door, Here she comes. Crawlin’ up my stair, Here she comes.<\/span><\/i> Smith at this point is singing with a tonation that is almost violent, as if she\u2019s fighting the song from the inside out like maybe she\u2019s trapped inside of it. A delivery that can\u2019t help but make the audience want to crawl out of their own skin. Smith\u2019s delivery is irresistibly moving, her delivery is what pushes us to feel her words more deeply. What makes Smith\u2019s work notable, really- what takes it to a place of timeless and potent <\/span>expression<\/span><\/i> is precisely that: the way in which it is expressed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another piece of context that makes up the form of a work of art is the time period in which it was made. What was being experienced alongside the release of this song and\/or what was it being compared to? In this case Smith\u2019s \u2018Gloria\u2019 and its value as a work of art is affected by the time it was released- 1975. In the mid seventies the feminist movement was in its \u201csecond wave\u201d, women were striking for equal rights and pay, the Vietnam War had just ended and the Watergate scandal had just taken place. The political climate context from which audiences were hearing Patti Smith was different from that of 1964. With the increased discourse surrounding women’s rights especially, Patti Smith vocalizing this song meant and means something more than without such historical context. The fact that simply placing the essentially same song in a new time period changed its value and potency proves Sontag\u2019s point that the essence of art comes from its form and not its content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Smith and Sontag both show us why it\u2019s important to look at art through a lens of form and not purely content. <\/span>In 1966 when Sontag wrote her essay she said that it is \u201cimportant [now] to recover our senses,\u201d that \u201cwe must learn to see more, to hear more, to feel more\u201d (Sontag 10).<\/span> Form is what takes art to a deeper level of feeling for us, like with Smith\u2019s song. The fact that it is her, Patti Smith, singing, the way she vocalizes the song and the era in which it was heard and perceived all amount to the work\u2019s artistic value. Each of those aspects of form allow us to feel the song on a deeper level. Sontag\u2019s belief remains timely, that in order to truly appreciate art, we must focus on how we can most fully experience it. In a time of heightened technological development, when there are so many tools to learn, it seems like people have an even stronger compulsion to know everything and to know why it is- to boil often complex concepts into confined parameters. It seems as though modern talk of art and culture increasingly ignores context or form. But there is nothing without context. There is nothing without form. In alignment with what Smith and Sontag\u2019s ideas show us, we must push against giving bounds to by definition what is supposed to remain boundless. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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