The Haunted Inkwell: Art and Our Future by Mark Patrick Hederman (Second-Hand)

The future is in our hands. It is a precious gift that we can squander, abuse, exploit or distort at will. There are many imperatives and considerations that should determine the steps forward we take, but prominent among these should be the voice of artists and the educating influence of art. This is not the only factor, but it should be a decisive one. Art can provide accurate and unflinching cardiography of the present with a prognosis of possibilities for the future, which politicians and leaders ignore at their peril. Taking a line from James Joyce as his title, the author shows how art can be our compass in destitute times. He uses the works of Seamus Heaney, James Joyce, Rainer Maria Rilke, Wole Soyinka, and Iris Murdoch to illustrate how this can be done.