The Arts in New York City

As a lover of theater, I am always psyched to see any kind of performance-whether it be a straightforward play, musical, or concert. However, I can hardly count the encounter with Jonathan Safran Foer on the last day of orientation a performance of any sort; I believe that the title of Arts Day for August Twenty Fourth was a bit of a misrepresentation for what actually went on.

First, let me explain what I mean by Art. The technical definition as provided by Oxford Dictionaries is the works produced by human creativity and skill, but I don’t completely agree with this stuffy definition. I believe that it misses the entire point of what art really is. To me, art is anything with the capacity to inspire passion deep within a person, to move them in a way that they never knew they could be moved. Art can come in so many forms, a good novel, a sculpture, a chord progression, or even a well designed article of clothing. It doesn’t matter what it is, all that matters is that it makes a person feel something they didn’t before, it stirs up emotions inside them that previously had sat idle.

So yes, the written word is as much an art form as a portrait or melodic tune, that being said Jonathan Safran Foer is indeed an artist. His books are his own masterpieces, so I naturally assumed that Mr. Foer would share his ideas, his inspirations, his writing process and other tricks of his trade. I was actually looking forward to what he had to say because I always dreamed of one day publishing a novel of my own, it has been a dream of mine since I was little. So one would understand why I was a bit disappointed when Mr. Foer shared very little insights and instead opted to give his own rather cynical remarks on the changing society of New York City and the world. As a matter of fact, it seems that Mr. Foer, despite being an artist himself, had any reverence for the arts or even considered himself an artist. His entire viewpoint on his own writing was shallow and almost disconcerting. This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the hour and a half or so spent in the presence of Mr. Foer, but I didn’t enjoy it for any artistic purposes whatsoever. I drew most of my entertainment from the man’s off the cuff remarks and sarcastic comments. He certainly was an interesting man to hold a conversation with, but his conversation hardly roused any emotion within me. As far as the “performance” aspect is concerned, I hardly believe that Mr. Foer’s rather dry reading of his own work counts as a performance on any level. Perhaps if he had actually made an attempt to perform the reading instead of simply reading the words printed on the page, a piece of art could have been created right on that stage. Unfortunately, his reading just didn’t make the cut for me.

In my humble opinion, if the school was going to be so bold as to entitle a day of orientation “Arts Day”, they should have devoted at least some time to the Arts. Being located in Manhattan, there was a million and one things that could have been done to fulfill this title – the number of art gallery’s in Manhattan is almost staggering. Or perhaps a real performance could have been given right in Hunter College’s Auditorium, one that invoked a sense of awe in the audience and captured their attention with a little more force that Mr. Foer’s reading. All in all, the day was an enjoyable experience and a good end to our three day orientation,but it was- by no stretch of the imagination- an exhibition of the arts.

Looking over the schedule for the Arts Day during and prior to my attendance, I began to wonder why the whole event was considered to be a day for the arts. I guess if you viewed an interview of a best-selling author about his views on art as an artistic performance, you’d say that the name perfectly fits the occasion. However, that’s not the case for me. Such a title to me would imply either the celebration of art, or exposure to engaging art pieces, or a combination of both. Arts day was neither, but of course that claim is debatable depending on one’s tastes and definitions.

For me, art is a representation of one’s creativity and thought. Art is also a medium that expresses feelings on a grand scale. Musical art for example, can pierce through people’s emotions, eliciting feelings of anger, happiness, sadness, bewilderment, and pretty much any emotion you can think of purely through auditory means.  If any piece of work, intended or not, can bring forth emotions from anyone, then it can be art. However, since the dawn of time, everyone’s had their own opinion as to what anything is, and I respect that. Ergo, we will all agree or disagree on whether certain things are artistic or not.

I didn’t expect much of the arts day. To be perfectly honest, I dreaded having to stay for the interview, not because I thought it would be boring- okay maybe just a little- but because it was getting late and I actually haven’t finished reading the book that was to be discussed.  Despite my feelings, I stayed- unlike others who i caught sneaking away- and much to my surprise, I found the interview to be quite entertaining. A large part of my surprise was due to the whole interview turning into a one sided discussion, on Jonathan Safran Foer’s part, about his “interesting” views on technology, writing, being an author in New York, and his rise to fame. The interviewee seemed stunned, hearing answers he didn’t really expect, and finding himself getting questioned instead. I found this to be quite humorous. However, on an artistic level, this “performance” had very little artistic value, unless of course it was planned. In that case I’d treat this piece as an artistically humorous play, but I’ll safely assume that this was not the case.

Aside from the humor I found, I thought the content had substance. Despite Jonathan Safran Foer sounding like a self-centered, pompous writer, much of what he said provided insight into not only his character, but particular views as well. He discussed his idea of art, how reading is changed by the advent of new technology, and an interesting view on writing that caught my attention. Foer expressed that he never outlines or plans his works, rather he just writes to expose feelings he couldn’t really express. I found myself agreeing with his view of writing as it appealed to my mindset. I’m not the type to really outline or plan heavily, most of my actions are, as one could call it, gut feelings. Then I realized that this guy is a best selling author, with multiple acclaimed novels. How is that even possible? I mean then one could argue that with my mindset, how I could ever achieve success, but I have my boundaries. I plan out big projects, and important papers. There’s no way that someone can handle such large tasks without much planning, save a few rare occasions. I could believe he’s either an insanely talented writer gifted by the gods, or that he’s just lying to us, and I’d be talking for most of the crowd by selecting the latter. Not many people become world renown best sellers by just looking at a paper and scribbling away without much thought. Perhaps his feelings are just that powerful. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t be able to tell.

Overall, I had a great experience. I enjoyed the company of many of my peers and made some great friends. The interview went better than I expected and I enjoyed listening to Foer’s responses. However I just think a little more art could be involved in a day titled “Arts Day.”

Although the Macaulay Orientation as a whole was enjoyable and exciting, I felt the last day of orientation did not live up to expectations. The third and final day of orientation was intended to be centered on the arts, and in my eyes that goal was not met. I’m not going to lie, I had an amazing time conversing with my fellow Macaulay Honors students across all the campuses and meeting the students that would attend Queens College under the Honors program as well, but was that really the main purpose of having the third day of orientation?

Art, the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power (the definition provided by the Oxford American Dictionary). During the third day of orientation I neither expressed nor experienced any sort of application of human creativity or imagination, except during lunch when I heard the music club play guitar and my new friends tell me hilarious, clever jokes. Oh and don’t forget the wonderful lunches that were prepared for us; respectfully I consider any sort of food to be a culinary art. Overall, I’m sorry but arts day had little to no art. I know this was the first year the orientation was changed, but someone needs to drastically alter the course of that day. If I may suggest, maybe you could hold the orientation at a museum for the arts. The Whitney and Metropolitan are both phenomenal museums that I highly suggest going to in order to satisfy your hunger for the arts. Even watching a movie would suffice. Acting, filming, editing, make-up, there are numerous aspects that go into creating a movie that all correlate to art. So please reconsider having another arts day without actually displaying any art.

When I heard Jonathan Safran Foer was attending our orientation I was excited to find out some of the reasons behind the writing styles, themes, characterization, and other literary techniques he utilized in his world renowned, bestseller Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Yet I was sadly disappointed. Despite the excerpt he chose to read aloud for the incoming class of 2015, Foer spoke little to nothing about his novel. Instead I felt like I was receiving a lecture on the life of Foer and his pompous, self-centered personality. I know it sounds harsh, but throughout the question and answer session Foer rarely answered a question because he was preoccupied with giving an autobiography of his life or preaching one of his strongly opinionated views. My first impression established after reading Foer’s book prior to the interview and the Foer I had established after the interview were two completely different people. A witty, humorous individual was expected in my mind but instead we got Jonathan Safran Foer. I felt Foer’s interview held nothing related to arts except for the fact that he is an author. Aspiring writers in the audience have my sympathy if they believed they were going to receive sound advice on how to advance their careers and follow the path to success in the literary world from Foer. Although I negatively criticized Foer’s interview and personality, I am a hypocrite. After sitting through his terrible interview I actually waited 40 minutes on line to get an autograph and politely thank him for the time he spent with us.

Arts Day was fun, but not for the reasons intended. If anyone of authority reads this blog, please don’t take it as an insult. Utilize this criticism to improve upon a day that has plenty of potential to be something great.