Being Unreasonable

Unreasonable people change the world for better or worse. But distinguishing who or what is unreasonable or absurd rather than just ho-hum, the run-of-the-mill is proving harder than ever.

When I was writing The Last Folk Hero, I mentioned the famous “unreasonable” George Bernard Shaw quote to one of the book’s main characters, Bill Arnett. Shaw wrote, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” Arnett said, “Shaw wasn’t talking about ME. I never met the man.” Arnett died last week and that conversation came to mind. Arnett was quick witted and he changed the world for many African-American self-taught artists like Lonnie Holley and Thornton Dial and those who have come since.

More recently, I’ve gone deep into the unreasonable absurdities of conceptual artist and experimental philosopher, Jonathon Keats. The book Follow the Meander was, in part, inspired by Keats and features him. Keats and I worked together almost 15 years ago on an unreasonable, absurd initiative we called Agrifolk Art. It’s documented in a short by David Edmond Moore which, for a while, played the film festival circuit and occasionally appeared on PBS. As difficult as times have been for the world recently, a little silliness and a healthy dose of “unreason” (for the right reasons and in the right direction) can be a partial antidote. Watch The Language of Limbs and hopefully you’ll feel the same.