First, just a few words on the reasons for this blog - nothing spectacular, just trying to create conversations about subjects loosely tied to western culture and history. Not requiring much in the way of supporting facts and so on, but also relying on the grace of any prospective participants to avoid partisan political, religious or personal invectives. I'd like to think of this blog as after dinner conversation - cordial at best but certainly always polite. So, here goes ....
Recently, a new biography of Vincent van Gogh was featured on the perennial news show, "60 Minutes."
Van Gogh: The Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, proposed than the end of Vincent's life was neither self-infliced nor in the cornfield made famous by his last painting. Simply put, the authors theorize that Van Gogh was accidentally or deliberately shot by a couple of wealthy French kids vacationing with their parents in Auvers at the time. The story goes, Vincent was familiar with these boys and he was teased and tormented by them over time, but his loneliness and alienation was so severe he tolerated their cruel acts, even to the extent of claiming he had shot himself, the story we are all familiar with. This begged the question to me of how we view Van Gogh as a result. Granted, he is seen from as many different perspectives as people familiar with his life and work (psychotic, epileptic victim (as the bio states,) saint, artistic genius, etc., but how much does the end of his life influence our overall view of his life? Is it an important fact if it's true? I know for me, being a lifelong fan of the well-known song, "Vincent (Starry Starry Night)" I became interested in whether the theories or facts surrounding a famous person actually also influence works ABOUT a figure? After all, the thrust of the Don Maclean song rests on the idea that Vincent took his own life ("You took your life, as lovers often do".) If you are rather religionless as I am and look to secular figures for inspiration, does the new theory alter your own views on your own assumptions and cultural choices, whether it's a new version of the end of Vincent van Gogh, or any other revision of history and its more well-known figures?
