Ethan Hawke, "Give yourself permission to be creative"

Hi all --

I am not sure how I stumbled across this TED talk, but it works. I do know I want to discuss themes of identity and creativity and how they relate to Texan pride. So here's Ethan Hawke encouraging people to "play the fool," doing nothing less than transform lives:

Before I address Hawke's remarks, we note that this expands a conversation about what it means to be Texan. It's a question with a lot on the line–as I've pointed out before, whether people believe you belong in this state can be a matter of life or death. And it is a question which indulges some of the worst stereotypes. Plenty of people possess a reductive notion of residing in this state, one centering on exclusion and cruelty. However, in "What Does It Mean to Be a Texan?", Steve Lovelace writes the following about the city of Austin:

Suppose you accept that being Texan is a state of mind. If you think you’re a Texan, you are. That brings about my next point. How much of the traditional Texas heritage do you need to share? Do you need to buy a cowboy hat and a pickup truck? Do you need to go to church and vote Republican? If so, then the whole city of Austin isn’t truly Texan. There are probably people who think so. But we can’t take such a narrow view of Texas culture.

Here's Hawke with a vibe that very much defines Austin. It's a vibe which a lot of people in Texas might think a waste of time–does this build our petrochemical industries? Is this going to win the SEC championship? Does this secure the border?–precisely because it speaks for the state. Which is wild to fully think through. How is it that the things not explicitly branded Texas, with the shape of the state and the flag stamped onto them, end up being the state? Living in Texas, you might think that branding is the only thing we do. The other day, I saw a van for a company called "Texas Plumbers." They made sure to have the colors of the flag and an outline of the state in their logo. I stared at it for a second, wondering how exactly their marketing works. Do they advertise at Texas Roadhouse exclusively? Always have a giveaway for Rangers tickets?

Hawke's remarks bolster a sense of independence most Texans believe they celebrate, but the remarks have an implicitly political edge. He begins by talking about Allen Ginsburg going full hippie on Bill Buckley's Firing Line. Firing Line meant to showcase an elevated conservatism, one debating prominent exponents of American liberalism while displaying openness and erudition. To be sure, it was not hard to see past the mask if you wanted to: the infamous incidents with James Baldwin and Gore Vidal are the truth of the matter, not the exception. Hawke doesn't mention any of this. His focus is on Ginsburg intentionally playing the fool, being a force which disrupts. If that results in America calling him an idiot, so be it. The point is to get attention and redirect it.

Hawke says the challenge of the artist is to create something of quality. I wonder about that. Ginsberg worked at his craft and certainly understood what is at stake with poetry. Poetry is sensitivity to how we talk, an awareness of how an invisible, unheard music underlies anything we say. Getting on Firing Line and making a mockery of Buckley's project is the correct move. Don't let those opposed to civil rights have legitimacy. Don't let their terrible song play without interruption. Ginsburg, in my thinking, is trolling the troll.

Which itself is a bit of a problem in this day and age. We are flooded with quick, cheap clips targeting the lowest common denominator. They try to get attention with shock and fraud. It's all a form of trolling, truth be told. You can make ignoramuses and racists feel empowered and at times even cultivated. Look at the attention to detail the worst sort of people pay to YouTube drama; they know they are tastemakers and take a desperate pride in that role. Can you really troll the trolls when a sense of shame barely exists among the body politic?

I don't know. Hawke certainly thinks his story about Ginsburg is about the larger power of art. He talks about a relative who spent 5 pages at the end of her life writing about costumes she designed for a play. She devoted only one paragraph to her first husband. He mentions how the love he and his brother had for Top Gun inspired both of them. One stepped into acting, the other into leadership. "Art is not a luxury," he says in passing, and he does not shy away from declaring art as "sustenance," "vital." I guess the question is whether the larger power of art can eclipse the horrors and stupidity of the present. I don't usually point my ire at influencers–I am jealous of how much content they create, their dedication to presentation and building an audience–but the truth is that their cleaner, nicer, well-made content isn't the same as really giving attention to something which matters. Or, in the case of fine art, helping us sharpen our gaze until we see what matters. There is higher art because there very much are sewers of culture. While this distinction can collapse into snobbery, it serves to remind us that focusing on serious things by definition pushes horrors and stupidity away.

I know what you're thinking. It doesn't feel so! It isn't like you can start talking about Herodotus and the gentleman around you who is watching Clavicular will cease his fascination with "jestermogging." It does seem that if you devote yourself to higher things, you run the risk of being resentful or alone. But I think that's where Hawke's remarks are especially relevant. He speaks of Ginsberg as poet and himself as an actor as doing their jobs, having a "profession." It isn't dedication to the result but dedication to the process at stake. The funny thing is how an obsession with success is dedication to result and construction of the sewer. No one will say of Mr. Beast that he didn't have an audience.

I'll have more to say about Ethan Hawke's TED talk later, I suspect. I wanted to touch on his mention of "nature" and how he sounds like an ancient philosopher at times. I don't think that's incidental or irrelevant. This world is breaking apart, and as it breaks, we see the threads of how it was sewn become exposed. Threads which are sometimes more whole, more durable, and more usable if we are genuinely committed to helping others survive and thrive.