To say that "the camera cannot lie" is merely to underline the multiple deceits that are now practised in its name.
The poet, the artist, the sleuth, whoever sharpens our perception tends to antisocial; rarely 'well adjusted,' he cannot go along with currents and trends.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creative individuals often struggle to fit into societal norms due to their acute awareness and perception.
This quote by Marshall McLuhan suggests that those who enhance our understanding and perception of the world—like poets, artists, and detectives—often find themselves at odds with mainstream society. Their unique insights and perspectives can lead them to feel isolated, as they are not inclined to conform to societal norms and trends that others may follow. This disconnect reflects a deeper truth about the creative process and the cost of heightened awareness in a world that often values conformity.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can serve as an introduction in an art class discussing the struggles of artists.
More from Marshall Mcluhan
All quotes →A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.
In big industry new ideas are invited to rear their heads so they can be clobbered at once. The idea department of a big firm is a sort of lab for isolating dangerous viruses.
The news automatically becomes the real world for the TV user and is not a substitute for reality, but is itself an immediate reality.
Faced with information overload, we have no alternative but pattern-recognition.
We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us.
Similar quotes
Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.
Judge: And what is your occupation in general? Brodsky: Poet, poet-translator. Judge: And who recognized you to be a poet? Who put you in the ranks of poet? Brodsky: No one. And who put me in the ranks of humanity? Judge: Did you study it?...How to be a poet? Did you attempt to finish an insitute of higher learning...where they prepare...teach Brodsky: I did not think that it is given to one by education. Judge: By what then? Brodsky: I think that it is from God.
Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.
A painting is a symbol for the universe. Inside it, each piece relates to the other. Each piece is only answerable to the rest of that little world. So, probably in the total universe, there is that kind of total harmony, but we get only little tastes of it.
A stage play is basically a form of uber-schizophrenia. You split yourself into two minds - one being the protagonist and the other being the antagonist. The playwright also splits himself into two other minds: the mind of the writer and the mind of the audience.
Here the frailest leaves of me and yet my strongest lasting, Here I shade and hide my thoughts, I myself do not expose them, And yet they expose me more than all my other poems