The Quest of the Artist: A Sci-Fi novella (9 page)

We don’t know whom in reality he saw that night. It was not Hands and Inka, of course, but two
similar
to his old loves, who allowed Kruger to revisit his childhood from a new perspective so he could rediscover his love for the “normals.” Or so he said.

He did not
approach
them, however, so up to the last, Kruger remains a contradiction in his “confession” to me—his fellow human—of his alienation
overcome
at last by his love for humanity.

Kruger’s final reconciliation, as cozy as it sounds, expressed many ideas about his art. Life is possible
as
a work of art. He said  he was no longer  the artist—but had become a work of art. But he would serve humanity.

I shared my notes with a colleague, a kind of psychologist. He agreed with my diagnosis and agreed our society would be better off without him.

Artists like Kruger want to destroy the world because they are hostile to life. It used to be said they only wanted to destroy the bourgeois, the materialists. As dated as it sounds, these were called the romantic dichotomies: artist/bourgeois, art/life, mind/body, and individual/society. To a degree, I believe this is true. Now no doubt, we can imagine a bourgeois-bohemian—a “Bobo,” so to speak. Perhaps this is the modification for the future. But for now, we need practical citizens. We need a new bourgeois world. Where there’s an artist—the health and innocence of a community
are not
! If fact, the psychologist said to me, Kruger is not even a healthy male. He might be homosexual. Furthermore, his extreme narcissism and dislike of the normals might be the
obsessions of a pederast
. That Kruger’s lack of human development, his rejection of normal sexuality and aging, his regret at growing older could possibly result in him living vicariously through the bodies of the young. I did not agree with these interpretations, but I didn’t argue with the psychologist. After all, I’m a neuroanthropologist, and I don’t see the use of using the language of neurosis or perversion, or art as sublimation.

He walked toward the deserts east. I’d like to think he had his role within social contexts now. That attuned to the world, and attuned to the societies left in it, he would present his truths using light, color, and form; that he would show the world as dynamic, create optimism, perhaps a catharsis; that he would illustrate our limitations, our
hubris
, but at the same time delight us and present those living with the lessons of history, the prospects of the future world, beauty, important truths. He would communicate, perhaps not be understood, but he would not be misunderstood. He would be a visionary, as no other before him, of what the world might be. In this, he would
transcend
time.

Later some would denigrate his work, even call it incompressible, but that would inspire him even more to communicate.

There would be commercial considerations, no doubt, the sale, barter, and even commissions after we began trade again.

Kruger was part of my experiment, I’m a social engineer after all, but as Nietzsche said—it is only as an
aesthetic phenomenon
that existence and the world are eternally
justified.
I might believe or wish it true, but it’s a dangerous premise in creating a new society.