Typically, you do not think of literature as works of art immediately. When someone mentions “Art”, you think of something drawn or sculpted, like a caricature, portrait, or statue. As one should; Without those disciples of the hand, culture, how its defined, and even how its born, would be vastly different. Art is what sets us apart from the rest of the world.
Now, that’s not to say that those disciples of the hand are solely responsible for how we perceive the world.
I recall a podcast when I was little. A young professor is assigned a case to teach a young man with special needs. He seemed to have issues with even acknowledging the rest of the world.
The professor ran the gauntlet. Tested him for various mental illnesses, including autism, schizophrenia, etc. But even as she ran him through these tests, those who check the marks for one illness or another will have one thing in common: They have at least the ability to perceive objects in space. At the end of her wits, she showed him different objects for him to witness, only to have him repeat her actions.
Repetition sparked something however, and she noticed it in his eyes. She showed him gestures in sign language that matched the objects. He copied her, for hours. Until finally, he started doing it on his own.
That’s when he realized something. He pointed at different objects, signing them, and the professor would acknowledge him with signs in return. They were communicating, and the young man broke down crying in revelation.
It turned out that the young man was deaf, and was never properly taught language as his parents wrote him off as mentally incapable. But since the revelation, he’s been excelling.
While I questioned if the story was even based on real events, it makes you wonder. At a young age, we learn to perceive the world with language. We label everything.
When you picture the word “tree”, you see a tree. When you see a tree, you archive the image with a word.
I started writing in third grade, after I thought to transcribe video games onto paper. Since then I moved to fanfiction, and then to original pieces of literature. Originally, I was always fascinated with the concept of “capturing” the world around me in paper. When reading, the imagination will go wild as the words transform into pictures in our head again.
Our world is painted with the labels we make for it. Painted with words. Next time you consider art, consider literary words alongside your paintings and sculptures... They’re one and the same in the end.
