“
Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity. ”
—Hermann Hesse (via wordpainting) (via rblackbirdsong)
Nice romantic sentiment, but very biased toward literate society. Societies without written language not only have history but a rich tradition of expressing that history through poetry, song, and story. Either Hesse’s observational and critical skills were faulty (which is difficult to believe) or he felt it was necessary to defend his profession—which, alas, seems to be something a number of other writers throughout the ages have deemed necessary as well.
I’d be interested to know the context of this quote, because, in my opinion, an artist shouldn’t have to apologize for his/her work; those who appreciate it don’t need an explanation and those who don’t—well, they’re probably hopeless causes anyway.