ABBA's Notes From Japan.

Treebeard

The Association of British Bonsai Artists run an occasional series of articles entitled "Notes from Japan", by a chap named Peter Warren.

The February article in particular interested me. You can read it here.

Thought provoking or same old same old?

Regards,

TB

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Adam_MA

I like that, simplistic revelation to a complex question.

I also agree that "Kylie Minogue looks better than Britney Spears"


Adam

rockm

I found the statement that nature "obeys no rues" downright laughable and a gross misunderstanding of nature. Nature if fraught with "rules," the most important set of which is physics. That are immutable and formidable and infulence us every day...;-)

Attila

Thanks for the pointer, TB. Nice article.

Rockm:

The "Nature Follows No Rules" statement can be interpreted in different ways. Your logic is understandable, but let me ask you this: do Rules follow rules? If Nature follows rules, Rules must also follow rules (since rules must be part of Nature). So, your logic has a contradiction: how can something follow itself?

Therefore: Rules don't follow rules. But if Rules are part of Nature, Nature doesn't follow rules.

As once Lao Tse said, the Tao (read: road) that can be followed is not the real Tao; the Name that can be named is not the real Name.


Regards,
Attila

Jonny D

HI Chris this is an interesting peice your right. There are some nice statement in the passage, but for me there are a few to many generalisations as well.

For instance it gives the impression that all of the UK's trees are village green type trees, that is true there are a lot of idealistic trees that you can find in this country, but particulalrly where I'm from it ain't difficult to wander up onto the North York moors or in to areas of the Yorkshire Dales and find trees that are completley different in character and appearance, alot more rugged and perhaps not to dissimilar to those found in the mountains of Japan. Does this therefore mean that my trees will look a great deal diffrent from yours down south where things are flatter?...Unlikley...Why? because were influenced not only by where we come from but everything else that bonsai has going for it, you could almost say there is a global trade of ideas and artistic notions. If we are only influenced by the where we come from why do we feal the need to show our bonsai in an asian manner? (something in my opinion which is over used).

Overall the article is basically saying that you will be influenced by the trees that you are familiar with but in my opinion this is same old same old. We are influenced yes by the trees we see but why should we, as C21 citizens with the ability to go any where in the world, see what ever we like on the TV and in books, be limited to notions of your trees will look like where you come from, lets be a global community.

That being said I understand and agree with the second to last statement, suggesting a good way to study bonsai is to look at you local trees, theres much to learn from them but lets not limit ourselves like this.

Jonny.

Oh and I think its a bit over critical of Britney Spears! I happen to like her!

Jonny D

Attila, your right it is a matter of interprting rules. Just like to add surely to obey rules you have to be self conceous, which trees as far as I'm aware are not.

Jonny.

DavidN

The author's comment of knowing what he likes and doesn't like really is, what I feel too, what bonsai to me is. I style a tree to the way I like.

And yes Kylie is much hotter than Brittany. Although I am from Oz too.

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Chaim Smuzock

This is going down the same road as many another threads. There are those that like rules and those that argue against their merit.

Rules are created by man to understand and live with nature. Without rules we are cavemen. With rules we can understand complex concepts and build upon these to create more rules with which we can further understand even more complex concepts we did not even fathom existed. We can welcome rules and thus see another dimension of nature or we can rebel against rules and live quite simple lives. Our choice will be reflected in our environment, including our bonsai.

Carl_Bergstrom

Well said, Chaim. And welcome!

-Carl

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