Creative Meditations

Open your history of sculpture, and dwell upon those illustrations which are not the normal, reposeful statues, but the exceptional, such as have been listed for this chapter. Imagine that each dancing, galloping, or fighting figure comes down into the room life-size. Watch it against a dark curtain. Let it go through a series of gestures in harmony with the spirit of the original conception, and as rapidly as possible, not to lose nobility. If you have the necessary elasticity, imagine the figures wearing the costumes of another period, yet retaining in their motions the same essential spirit. Combine them in your mind with one or two kindred figures, enlarged till they fill the end of the room. You have now created the beginning of an Action Photoplay in your own fancy. Vachel Lindsay. The Art of the Moving Picture (Kindle Locations 1083-1088).

Teachers exploring literature can do this activity of creating statues to commemorate scenes in a novel.  Groups of students (3-4 is optimal) pose as a sculpture/sculpture.   The teacher than can take a digital picture and have a gallery of scenes.  The scenes will help students visualize the book they have been working through. 

Library Notes

One can watch a number of the silent films mentioned in Art of the Moving Picture by Vachel Lindsay; thanks to the Internet Archives.Here are the links to enable your study.   I recommend watching the movies with your favorite electronic track (e.g. something from EXFM).
D.W. Griffith's: Birth of a Nation  ; Enoch Arden
Thomas H. Ince: Grandad; The Return of Draw Egan 
Giovanni Pastrone:  Cabiria

Poetry Museum

The old lady said to the cat:— "Cat, cat, kill rat. Rat will not gnaw rope, Rope will not hang butcher, Butcher will not kill ox, Ox will not drink water, Water will not quench fire, Fire will not burn stick, Stick will not beat dog, Dog will not bite pig, Pig will not jump over the stile, And I cannot get home to-night."
The rat began to gnaw the rope, The rope began to hang the butcher, The butcher began to kill the ox, The ox began to drink the water, The water began to quench the fire, The fire began to burn the stick, The stick began to beat the dog, The dog began to bite the pig, The frightened little pig jumped over the stile, And the old lady was able to get home that night.

Vachel Lindsay. The Art of the Moving Picture (Kindle Locations 576-579).
Vachel Lindsay. The Art of the Moving Picture (Kindle Locations 571-574).

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The Art of the Moving Picture

Saloon Magazine Wrote of the book:
"This (1915)1922 book by poet and sometime cultural critic Vachel Lindsay might have been the first to treat the then-new medium of moving pictures as an art form, one that was potentially as rich, complex, mysterious as far older ones, and whose physical and aesthetic properties were only starting to be understood. The highlight of the book might be “The Motion Picture of Fairy Splendor,” which examines the relationship between film storytelling, magic, myths, legends and bedtime stories. It’s discombobulating, in a good way, to read Lindsay’s attempts to grapple with what, precisely, cinema is. Being supposedly sophisticated 21st century people, we all feel as though we know what cinema is, and don’t need to have the basics explained to us, but this is really just vanity and ignorance talking. Bottom line: You haven’t really, seriously thought about movies — what they are, and what they can and cannot do, and become — until you’ve read this book."< (Salon.com)


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One historical significance of the book is the topic of mob mentality. The people of the early twentieth century feared mob riots (we hold these fears as well). They feared that the mob would be greatly by movies as to act out against the civilized world, and take the violence portrayed on the screen into the streets.   Lindsay felt that crowds had the ability to become a wave of destructive force, and that movies could motivate that force.   Films let the emotional catalyst of the crowd. He posed the question:  Can the wave become sacred or is  it bound to hell furry?  Who will strike out when they get emotionally hypnotized by the scene portrayed on the screen.?

  A clip from Dracula by Bram Stoker gives credence to these questions: