Culture vs Credit

Due to the current economic climate, we’re told everyday that house prices are declining; we’ll have to pay more tax; our pensions, investments and savings are becoming worthless. However, help comes from the arts. Art, film, books and music can save you from the bite of the credit crunch and make you realise that money isn’t everything.

Read Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Bauby had everything. He was the editor of Elle in Paris, he had money, a beautiful girlfriend and a sports car. One day after picking up his son he suffered a massive stroke which left him with locked-in syndrome. It meant his brain was unscathed but he lost the use of his whole body - apart from his left eye. Bauby wrote his book by blinking. An assistant would go through the alphabet and he’d blink at the letter he required. The most heartbreaking bit was how desperately Bauby wanted to ruffle the hair of his son. A simple action which can easily be taken for granted. The book, and later the film, says no matter how bad you think your life is things could be worse. Maybe you can’t afford to buy those new shoes, but at least you have your health.

The Lives of Others is a German film set during the Cold War. A Stasi officer is assigned to spy on a playwright thought to be a traitor. It’s a wonderful film and there are not enough words to describe how amazing it is. However, the underlying theme is that art can light up the darkest of places. The Stasi knew this and used it as punishment. An aged writer becomes a broken man after the Stasi prevent him from showing any of his plays in Berlin. A life without art, books, film and music wouldn’t be worth living and what does it cost? Very little.

This year British band Elbow finally got some credit for four fantastic albums when Seldom Seen Kid won the Mercury prize. Without realising you would have heard their anthem ‘On a Day Like This’ - the BBC used it on their Olympic coverage and you hear it on various TV programmes. It contains the line ‘So throw those curtains wide! One day like this a year’d see me right! – It’s such an uplifting piece of music and can brighten up the darkest of days. Music, good music that is, can keep our spirits high.

The headlines are depressing and maybe things will get a bit tight for many of us but as long as we have enough to eat, pay the bills and indulge in a spot of culture, life won’t be that bad will it?