Topical Guide 617
Mark Dorset
Art: Literature: Responding to: Sharing the Experience
Where Do You Stop? Chapter 22:
WE WORKED ON THE TOWER each afternoon when the school day ended. All in all, the work took us a couple of weeks. The first week and nearly all of the second went into clearing bamboo from the site. Then we erected the watchtower in two days of frenzied work.
Work: The Light Touch
Where Do You Stop? Chapter 22:
(During those busy days I discovered what a pleasure it is to hear a hammer hit a nail squarely. I didn’t hit the nail heads squarely very often, but when I did I was rewarded with the solid sound of competence. I found that I could hear that sound and get the satisfaction that came with it more often if I used a lighter touch, and I’ve applied that principle to all forms of work throughout my later life.)
Work: “The Builder’s Look,” Self-Congratulation, Disappointment
Where Do You Stop? Chapter 22:
When we were done, we gave the watchtower what I’ve thought of ever since as “the builder’s look.” If you watch someone completing almost any kind of work done with the hands, especially work that requires some skill or esthetic judgment or has been a real pain in the ass during the doing, you are likely to see the craftsman, at the end of the work, or merely at the end of one day’s installment of it, pause to take the builder’s look. It begins with stepping back and taking the long view. (For small work, holding-at-arm’s-length serves as a stepping-back.) This stepping-back is essential, for you, the builder, homo faber, must be able to see your work in the round and in its surroundings. You want to see that the proportions are right, for one thing, and you want to assure yourself that what you’ve made really is, that it fills some space in this world that formerly was empty. If the proportions are right, and you’ve filled some space properly, you complete the builder’s look with self-congratulation. […]
Work that doesn’t show when you take the builder’s look is disappointing. It could serve as one of the definitions of disappointment.
See also:
Art, Play TG 5; Paint-by-Numbers TG 107, TG 108; Necessity of Transformation in TG 110; Doodling TG 165; Art Materials: Masonite TG 167; Art and Craft and Real Life TG 385; Art: Literature: Responding to: Sharing the Experience TG 367, TG 617; Conceptual TG 482; Commodification of TG 482
Work, Labor TG 5; Endless Tasks TG 86; Tasks, Sisyphean TG 89; Day Jobs; Working at Cross-Purposes TG 120; Educational Publishing TG 111; Work versus Play TG 367; Work as a Stultifying Waste of Time TG 485; Work, Persistence, Endurance, Survival, Humiliation TG 527; The Light Touch TG 617; “The Builder’s Look,” Self-Congratulation, Disappointment TG 617
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