Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Good Letters

Home
Catholic
The Art of the Authentic: Bill Baer’s Times Square

The Art of the Authentic: Bill Baer’s Times Square

Last updated on: June 22, 2015 at 1:00 am by A. G. Harmon

The Art of the Authentic: Bill Baer’s Times Square 2015-06-21T15:18:49-07:00 A. G. Harmon

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In 1973, Orson Welles made a documentary, F for Fake, in which he followed the story of Elmyr de Hory, a famous forger whose work was indistinguishable from the great masters he mimicked.

One of the participants in the film was writer Clifford Irving, Elmyr’s biographer, who was holding forth on the forger while at the very same time perpetrating a literary fraud by penning a false autobiography of Howard Hughes. Welles, the narrator, delighted in reminding the audience that he, Welles, was also one the biggest hucksters of all time, whose radio hoax about a flying saucer invasion caused a national uproar that thousands actually believed.

The great director’s question in the film essay—a technique quite innovative for its time—was the old conundrum of what is real and what is not, and what makes something art as opposed to imitation.

Of course, Plato despised art for this very reason—its fraudulence. But a more generous view was later taken by aesthetic rehabilitators, who said—more or less—that “art is the lie that leads to the truth” (well, actually Picasso said that, more or less). And in Bill Baer’s short story collection, the pervading theme is a testing of that statement through fictive means. In Times Square and Other Stories (Able Muse Press, 2015), art puts itself in the docks.

As a poet, fiction writer, scholar, and screenplay professor, Baer’s depth of experience is considerable. He writes with authority, beginning with the title story, “Times Square.” A man and woman from opposite ends of the globe are directed towards each other by a set of separate instructions written in the far past. Blind but faithful, they are willing to go along with the story set out before them, trusting and participating in it.

Like a puzzle, the work comes together piece by piece. The reader is increasingly oriented about the characters, their motives, and the mystery of their guidance as the lines of the story form. The shape molds about the protagonists; the back and foregrounds are filled in.

Meta-fictionally, the characters live the tale as they follow the plot points, seeking that most genuine, most authentic of things, love, through the artistic narrative. The reader follows in trust and faith where the story leads, just as the characters rely on the ones who are writing it, intuitively believing that the authors have their interests in mind, and that their good is intended. It seems trust, submission, is at the heart of civilization, as well as at the heart of the heart.

In “Disumbrationism,” the theme is explored from another angle, focusing on the inauthentic. The name comes from an early nineteenth century hoax. Scholar Paul-Jordan Smith, disgusted with the pretensions of modern art, submitted a naïve painting to various art exhibits. In conjunction, he coined a false movement—“disumbrationism”—and gave himself an exotic name (a familiar ruse in times when an artist’s background story, gender, color, and political statement can be as important as anything he does).

Predictably, Jordan-Smith succeeded in being roundly accepted for his genius. But when he unveiled his prank, the experts shrugged off their indictment. The art world is notoriously impervious to exposé.

In the story, an art expert has received an anonymous letter claiming that a number of paintings in a major museum are forgeries. Like Jordan-Smith, the letter writer makes the charge that when minimalism is the fad, there is no way of knowing. Does art lead to truth or obscure it when there is so little that invites entry or communication? The question is whether truth will indeed be the daughter of time, as the ancients promised.

Yet another take is that on the world of film. In “Pure Cinema,” a great work of cinematic art, said to be the most beautiful film ever made, has been missing for years. In search of the work, a film historian learns what artists can do to themselves in a tunnel-vision quest for artistic purity. Like Frankenstein’s vain pursuit of power, the artist can tempt madness by demanding the narcotic of aesthetic experience.

Similarly, in “Screwball,”this Shelley-like madness is touched upon via a different type of artist—the baseball pitcher (he who “paints the corners of the base with the unhittable ball”)—and his perverse search for the physiological science that would enable the perfect pitch.

In a particularly ambitious and satisfying story, “The Plagiarist,” Baer returns to the narrative arts. The question of where one mind ends and another begins lies at the complex center of a tale concerning a man whose propriety over past artistic achievement has a destructive effect. He cannot see, despite his every effort to see, what he is copying. The cautionary reminder that Bach seldom wrote his own tunes and that Shakespeare borrowed all of his tales brings the critic up short.

The desire to be original is in fact at the heart of our first mistake—a desire not to be God-like, but to be God himself. How fine the line is between imitation and appropriation, between inspiration and theft.

Other stories tease out the same idea, but space permits mentioning only two: In “Shroud,” the drastic consequences of a man’s devotion to the story behind the Shroud of Turin—and to the need for demonstrable proof—is contrasted with the faith that makes that story irrelevant. And in “Endgame,” a priest caught in the middle of the Soviet overrun of Prague must play a game of chess in order to win his life; in so doing, he relearns the difference between conceit and obedience.

Baer’s enlivening work is strengthened by his honor-bound obligation to tell a good tale at the same time he tells a meaningful one. These days, the compression demanded by the short story form often leads to a failure on both counts. Times Square, with its thought-provoking central theme realized in captivating works, proves the happy exception.

A.G. Harmon teaches Shakespeare, Law and Literature, Jurisprudence, and Writing at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. His novel, A House All Stilled, won the 2001 Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel.

Previous Post

June 19, 2015

Is the Gospel Good News or Bad?

Next Post

June 23, 2015 Ray Bradbury Lives Forever

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A. G. Harmon Alissa Wilkinson Allison Backous Art Authors Brad Fruhauff Bradford Winters Bryan Bliss Caroline Langston Chad Thomas Johnston Chris Hoke Christiana N. Peterson Culture D.G. Myers D.L. Mayfield Daniel Bowman Jr. David Griffith Elizabeth Duffy Faith Film Greg Wolfe Guest Contributor Interview Jan Vallone Jeffrey Overstreet Jessica Eddings-Roeser Jessica Mesman Griffith Kelly Foster Lindsey Crittenden Morgan Meis music Natalie Vestin Nick Olson Peggy Rosenthal Personal Reflection Poetry Friday Reflection Relationships Review Richard Chess Richard Cole Sara Zarr Shannon Huffman Polson Sonya Bilocerkowycz Tania Runyan Tony Woodlief Topical Categories Uncategorized Vic Sizemore Writing

Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What was the final plague that led Pharaoh to release the Israelites?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Hail Death of the firstborn Locusts Frogs