Henrry Darger

[MumblingSage]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger

"He has become famous for his posthumously discovered 15,145-page, single-spaced fantasy manuscript called The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with several hundred drawings and watercolor paintings illustrating the story."

My English class watched a documentary on him this week. While most people concentrated on psychoanalyzing his illustrations, I was experiencing the strangest feeling of "There but for the grace of God..." (and the internet, Absolute Write especially) and envy. Sometimes I think I could be quite happy to spend the rest of my life immersed in writing a history of my own fictional world, without or without illustrations. It's how I spent much of middle school, and the first year of high school. It makes me wonder how many more Dargers there are out there.

[Libbie]

YES. I love Henry Darger. His story is really amazing. I've long been a fan...I intend to buy one of his original collages some day, when I have the money.

[IceCreamEmpress]

Originally Posted by MumblingSage

I was experiencing the strangest feeling of "There but for the grace of God..." (and the internet, Absolute Write especially) and envy. Sometimes I think I could be quite happy to spend the rest of my life immersed in writing a history of my own fictional world, without or without illustrations.

The thing is that Darger was able to devote his life to his giant story because that was his whole life--he had a very menial job as a church caretaker, no friends, no family, no other activities. He swept the church and fired the boiler, went to a drugstore and bought a sandwich or heated a can of soup on a hotplate in his one room, and then worked on his giant story.

That doesn't feel like anything to envy, because doing that kind of work means letting go of everything else that makes life joyful for most people: love, friendship, the beauty of nature, new experiences, you fill in the blanks.

I admire Darger because he was able to make some truly fascinating lemonade out of the lemons life had thrown him in terms of limited opportunities, isolation from family, and a complicated set of psychological/neurological issues. But I wouldn't want to be him or live his life.

It's how I spent much of middle school, and the first year of high school. It makes me wonder how many more Dargers there are out there.

I don't think there are so many--it takes a lot of determination and a good deal of talent, as well as the obsessive inward focus, to produce something like Darger's work.

But you might want to see this film, about another person who responded to traumas by creating an enormous multi-year art project.

[Susan Littlefield]

Originally Posted by Jamesaritchie

This is why I run and hide when someone uses the word "art." Far more often than not, art is simply a word written on a keyboard with a bad "F" key.