What Is Important
In life
what is important
is the truth as it is,
while in arts and letters
what is important is the truth
as we see it.
There is a real difference here
though people turn to the imagination
without knowing it in life
and to reality without knowing it
in arts and letters.
— excerpt essay, Imagination as Value
From The Necessary Angel by Wallace Stevens
There is a difference? Is what is real that which is anchored in a particular interest, or need (what is important)? As there any truth “as it is,” bereft of a human interest? What is truth apart from seeing?
Alternatively is the real in essence “tagged” with reality apart from any human concern or tie of relationship?
Are these two different things…….., or two alternative manners of speaking?
