The lighthouse.

The lighthouse is an evocative image that has been used over and over again in art, literature, music, film, theatre, photography and much more. For some unknown reason, I have come across a lot of lighthouse-related imagery over the past week, so I thought I would share some of it. The painting above is by the Romantic painter Turner, who Ruskin described as the sole artist able to "stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of Nature." The painting does indeed sum up the solitude of the lighthouse surrounded by the vast crashing waters of the sea. I particularly like how the ship to the left is perilously trapped within the storm, and the observer knows not whether the ship will sink or survive. I love the contrast between the sky and the waves - both look threatening, but the sky is awe-inspiring as it cannot harm us, whereas the sea is menacing for its potential to destroy and engulf. 

This song was sung at an acoustic Open Mic night that I attended yesterday evening. The guy that sung injected more emotion into the song and the lyrics than the original, in my opinion, but I still like the Nickel Creek version. 

"And the waves crashing around me, the sand slips out to sea. 

And the winds that blow remind me, of what has been, and what can never be."

I first read Woolf's To the Lighthouse when I was about 14, and was enthralled by the Modernist stream of consciousness style of writing. The lighthouse comes to resemble the perceptual difficulty of interpretation, which ultimately leads to contradiction and consternation. James - who we see as both a child and an adult in the novel - comes to the realisation that multiple, conflicting, perceptions can all be true concurrently, and that reality is ultimately defined by one's perceptions and is thus subjective and transient. 

"The Lighthouse was then a silvery, misty-looking tower with a yellow eye, that opened suddenly, and softly in the evening. Now— James looked at the Lighthouse. He could see the white-washed rocks; the tower, stark and straight; he could see that it was barred with black and white; he could see windows in it; he could even see washing spread on the rocks to dry. So that was the Lighthouse, was it? No, the other was also the Lighthouse. For nothing was simply one thing. The other Lighthouse was true too."