{The Letter and the Spirit}[1st March 1988]

[Redbook5:25-30][19880301:2152c]{The Letter and the Spirit}[1st March 1988]

19880301.2152

[continued]

It appears to be commonly believed that there is no distinction between form* and content. I cannot hold to this, for the simple reason that I am aware of a perfection of content which I can only express through an imperfection of form. The perfection, of course, is beyond me:** and in this sense, the common belief has a point. But in my case, the difficulty is curiously emphasised by the fact that, so far as I can tell, I write better when the more fully realised of my fictional characters*** are expressing themselves, worse when I am trying to express myself – as in the link-passages between Archetypal manifestations.

****

In its extreme contemporary form, the common belief is that there is no content, only form.# I suspect that this tendency towards superficiality is characteristic of cultural decadence, parallel to sensationalism and the cult of gratification. Interestingly, it seems most pronounced in the visual arts; moderately so in creative literature; #* and least in music.#** In terms of occupational birth[-]date statistics, (visual) artists are associated with J~, and Musicians with R~; ever since I began creative writing on Archetypes, I have associated my own,#*** and the creative writer's, position with +K, or G~#****. The J~ of this arc could of course be more expected to be concerned with form, being nearer to A~; the R~ end with content, or spirit, being nearer to +C†I~.

*I mean 'form' in the current idiomatic sense of 'shape' or 'appearance'. <891006>

**(In both senses)

***(A happy ambiguity) [This marginal note is at the ms. line which starts with 'realised' and finishes with ‘characters’.]

****{This piece I think arose out of awareness of my failure to reach a high standard of craftsmanship in my fiction writing. 'The Letter killeth, the Spirit giveth Life.'}##

#[There is, perhaps, an interesting analogy or parallel with the view at the time that there is no such thing as mind, only the brain which itself can only be considered as part of the body. <20171006>]

#*cf. [[Redbook5:11-12][19880212:1155c]{Multiple Viewpoints and Single Minds [continued (3)]}[12^th February 1988],] 12.

#**Really?

#***occupationally – not, in my case, by birth. (My imagination is strongly visual.)
[At some stage, probably with the development of the diagonals, this writer’s view of his own station, degree or location in at least some aspects moved towards J~, probably as a sub-ordinal of G~. <20171214>]

#****[+K and G~ identify two different aspects or manifestations of the same horizontal cardinal station or degree. <20171214>]

##[

And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

2 [St. Paul's Letter to the] Corinthians 3:5-6 Authorised/King James Version.

]

Some of this may have been covered earlier.

[continues]

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