B.
Is there no way to recognize and reconcile the two undeniable extremes of art: its
urgent, realistic depiction of human life and its retreat to a self-reflexive realm of language,
forms, and ideas? I can answer only with a parable. Many years ago when I lived in Texas I
was stuck by a type of side road fairly common along with highways of that state. Called
“loop roads” and assigned a state number, these routes ran a few miles into the countryside,
sometimes to a homestead of small community, and returned to the highway at the same
point or a little farther on, thus forming a loop. They were neither dead ends nor connecting
roads to another highway. By taking one of these loop roads you could explore the landscape,
change your direction, break your journey, and perhaps discover an impressive outlook or
landmark, knowing that you would return to your original path after the detour. I sensed even
then that such roads would later furnish a compact analogy for something I could not yet
identify.
A work of art or literature removes us temporarily from the regular path of our lives
and diverts us into a partly imaginary domain where we can encounter thoughts and feelings
that would not have occurred to us on the highway. These side experiences differ from our
daily lives. In literature they are made up of words—disembodied, intense, complex,
wonderfully malleable, and convincing. These differences permit a literary work to probe
disturbingly deep into potential relation among character, action, thought, and the natural
world. We accept the differences and expect them to observe or exceed certain conventions
of plausibility and exaggeration, usefulness and fantasy. At the same time we know that this
“detour” of art will deliver us back before long into the track of our lives, which may be
changed or influenced in some manner by this side trip.
This loop analogy presents a work of art as a form of delay or relay along the path of
living. Its processes are only temporarily autonomous; they turn off from and return to the
realities of human existence. Humans have a great capacity for delayed response, for
foresight based on hindsight. Artists and writers refine and develop this faculty by constantly
rehearsing real and imaginary events in order somehow to get them right—in timing and
tone. This process of pausing to reflect, of rehearsing (both before and after the fact) the
consequences of our actions, has always inspired human artistic creativity. Art is free to try
all the genres and modes it can imagine; some of them travel a long way from reality. Its
responsibility is to return us to reality better prepared to continue our journey. 【題組】26.As used in paragraph 2, the idea of a “detour” represents
(A) a work of art as different from everyday life
(B) the fact that art can be a guide through life
(C) the fact that art is intentionally misleading
(D) the stylistic shift that inevitably occurs in a field of art
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