While reading Let the Great World Spin, I didn’t know that the story of the man walking between the Twin Towers was true, nor did I find it easy to believe once I was told that it was. I’m sure that this is an understandable reaction, as Philippe Petit’s feat was seemingly impossible, even to himself at times. I really admire the determination that Petit had, as if there was nothing in the world that could have stood between him and his dream. Honestly, I believe that if everyone lived like that, the world would be a much better place. I like what Sharouk said, that Petit really lived. He didn’t just go through the motions of daily life, he truly took every day as a dare to accomplish whatever it is that he wants.
However, as Sharouk and Chloe both mentioned, there was great sacrifice that had to be made in order for this dream to be realized. Yes, he did lose many relationships with other people that he supposedly cared about, but I think that the real sacrifice that he made was much more deep-seated. Petit was so absorbed in his art, that it didn’t seem as if he truly cared at all about any of the people around him were hurt by his actions. It was unfortunate that he lost many of these relationships, but it was even more unfortunate to me that the viewers likely care more about the end of these relationships than he did.
This complete self-indulgence and complete focus that defined Petit’s work makes me question if that’s where “true” art comes from. Do professional artists, the ones that truly earn fame for their work, all have this common theme of seclusion from actual, real-life, healthy relationships with other people? If yes, this is the biggest sacrifice that artists have to make for their work to be realized, and it’s a price that I don’t think I would ever be able to pay.
I think we learned through reading “Just Kids” we have learned that the artist community is far from being seclusive. I think Petit did not really sacrifice anything in his art. From what I had read Petit did not really cut ties with his friends that aided him like the documentary makes it seem he did. I replied on Sharouk’s post regarding. I am not entirely sure if it is true if he did stay friends with them, but on psychologytoday.com there was a comment made that they stayed friends for forty years and it had been Philippe himself that brought everyone together to be recorded for the documentary. I think being an artist however can somewhat isolate you from mainstream culture and society but overall that is not a bad thing because there are other artists you can fraternize with and make friends with. From what I can tell from “Just Kids” the artist community seems like one giant family. All of them have the same calling, and nature in that they see the world around them differently. This idea is reinforced through the guest speaker we had as well, Daniel Kelly. A lot of the work he did involved collaborations with other artists, but also with people that have no ties with the musical world. He connected with real people in the pursuit of creating his own art. In this we can also think of the creator of HONY who bases all of his art on the strangers he encounters on the streets of New York. These people were able to connect with complete strangers in the pursuit of making their own art.