This is an interesting thread! I can remember when it would not have been
tolerated here (too much "theory").
It seems to me what you are discussing is the difference between the
"explanatory" or the "descriptive" vs. the "reflective."
The former (it seems to me) is a process that amplifies and perpetuates
something already largely known; the latter is used as a tool to discover
something unrealized. The one underwrites and makes our world more
concrete, the other enters us into a dialogue that deepens and broadens -
it is something inherently expansive.
Here are some ramdom, truncated, thoughts and quotes, perhaps of interest
(authors noted where they appear in my notes):
* Hugo Murstenberg - "It is as if the outer world were woven into our mind
and were shaped not through its own laws, but by the acts of our attention."
* "...these metaphors *allude* to meaning, but do not *denote* meaning."
* "...its function is found in its capacity to insinuate rather than quote."
* "...there is far more to truth than just a succession of facts."
* Robert Sardello -"Life has been usurped by the factual."
* Robert Bosnack - "A dream is a happening in space, an articualtion of
space."
* Henry Moore - "I am not interested in the expression of beauty, but in
the power of expression."
* Emmet Gowin - "We never do anything really good, intentionally!"
I am signing of the list for a couple of weeks with these thoughts. I send
you all kind thoughts in the meanwhile....
Jon