Comments on: On Vanity

By: birgit

birgit — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:35:49 +0000

June,

Now we know, whether we are welcome visitors.

Thank you for introducing me to Emily Carr. I like her paintings a lot.

By: JUne

JUne — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:17:29 +0000

Ah, Rex,

Strategic delusion!!! That’s exactly right.

Different from vanity, I think, in that it allows one (like Birgit — and myself) to imagine ourselves in the company of Van Gogh — or Emily Carr for that matter.

And Birgit, Emily Carr (Canadian painter, mid-20th century) innovated my favorite bit of vanity. Like Emily Carr, I hang my visitor chairs on the wall in my studio. Carr brought hers down for visitors only after she had decided whether she wanted them to stay or not. Since I have few visitors, I haven’t been able to use that statement very often. But I sure like thinking of myself as in the company of Ms. Carr.

By: Rex

Rex — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 16:02:18 +0000

David,

The advantage of saying “vanity” when one is talking about “self confidence” is that when someone else suggests you are vain, you can say, “Of course.”

That is much better than any explanation. I mean, don’t you just love making people’s eyes pop out sometimes by fielding intended snark so nonchalantly?

For a time, while writing for a college paper, I would not even put my name on the articles. One of my professors noticed this one day and commented. I told him, “I don’t need to sign the articles. Everyone knows only I write that way.”

His comment, “Ah. Not humility but the ne plus ultra of supreme vanity.”

Heh.

In an earlier version of this essay, I did, as I am wont, one of my word analysis things. “Pride” is another term with a dual sense. In the end, I concluded that “vain” was the appropriate word when one is trying to make up for a lack of some kind, and this requires a little self deception to pull off. I heard a motivational speaker describe this as “telling the truth in advance.”

The original thought here is that some strategic delusion is OK, helpful, and sometimes necessary. Besides. We all do it.

By: birgit

birgit — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 15:22:26 +0000

Is there a difference between vanity and having role models? I always had absurd role models. As a child, I thought the ultimate existence was that of Immanual Kant, thinking while taking walks. In my thirties, I bought a piano and played four hours a day, dreaming of Arthur Rubinstein’s life after immersing in his autobiographies. Later, at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, I thought it was normal to be hobnobbing with Nobel Price winners.

Presently, I have the desire to finish two really nice projects with my own hands (which required learning biochemistry) that, earlier, were botched by my biochemistry collaborators. Is this what Hilary calls her ‘responsibility gene’ or is it vanity?

By: Sunil Gangadharan

Sunil Gangadharan — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 11:13:31 +0000

Rex,
You struck a chord in me when you mentioned the connection between vanity and its apparent necessity in artists… I very much agree with this and I sometimes think that it is my vanity that carries me through some of my artwork. Budding and largely unknown artists may not have the people nor the galleries to march with their works/cause. In such circumstances, it is the strength of conviction that their artworks ‘talk’ their minds that sometimes carries her/him forward. Yes I very much agree.

By: David

David — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 06:53:07 +0000

Rex, this is perhaps not dictionary-accurate, but I’ve always thought of what you describe above as “self-confidence”. I think of “vanity” as being preoccupied w/ how others see us.

By: Rex

Rex — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 06:05:48 +0000

Ah June,

What a gorgeous comment.

When, dear, will you make more posts?