August 28, 2015
If you have played the game “Apples to Apples”, then you will be familiar with the type of associations suggested in today’s blog. A few weeks ago, we wrote about the ways in which the field of Comparative Literature and the educational style of Harrison Middleton University overlap. Today, we add to that a list of possible pairings – two different pieces of art that connect through an unlikely association. Obviously, this list is not exhaustive, nor is it concrete. Humans associate freely as an act of the creative process. Therefore, this list can be used literally, in which you investigate a pairing or two as listed to see whether or not they form a similar pairing in your own mind; or didactically, in which, after understanding the freedom of association as demonstrated by our list, you create your own list of pairs. It is a fun and often enlightening experiment. Couple this list with wine and conversation to enhance creativity, freedom and, perhaps, enjoyment.
Suggested Pairings:
~ Tchaikovsky’s “Overture of 1812” – the Federalist Papers
~ The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell – St. Augustine’s Confessions
~ Margaret Wertheim’s Crochet Coral Reef (http://crochetcoralreef.org/) – Euclid or Newton
~ Marcus Aurelius Meditations – Mumford and Sons’ “Sigh No More” or Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby
~ Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
~ Lucretius’ The Way Things Are – Mary Oliver’s Blue Horses or Rivers and Tides, a film about the art of Andy Goldsworthy
~ Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club – the book of Genesis
~ Einstein’s general theory of relativity – One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
~ The Iliad – Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
~ Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex – Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
~ Inception, 2010 film directed by Christopher Nolan – Carl Jung’s Psychology of the Unconscious
~ Dickens’ Little Dorrit – Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables or Shakespeare’s Othello
~ Homer’s Odyssey – Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote de la Mancha or Native American tapestry and ceramics
~ Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice – Marc Chagall’s “Amoureux de Vence”
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