Shifting the Paradigm: Shepard, Myth, and the Transformation of Consciousness

Shifting the Paradigm: Shepard, Myth, and the Transformation of Consciousness GARY GRANT In every era, startling scientific breakthroughs challenge old ideas and philosophies . "'The 1980s will be a revolutionary time,' said physicist Fritjof Capra, 'because the whole structure of our society does not correspond with the world view of emerging scientific thought'.'" Humankind discovered that the world was round, that the planets circled around the sun, that matter only seemed solid. Each of these discoveries resulted in a "paradigm shift," a term introduced by Thomas Kuhn in his landmark 1962 book, the Structure of Scielllific Revolutions. A paradigm shift indicates a'change in the Framework of thought, in the scheme for understanding and explaining certain aspects of reality. A paradigm shift is a distinctly new way of thinking about old problems : At times of revolution, when the nomlat-scientific tradition changes, the scientist's perception of his environment must be re-educated - in some familiar situations he must learn to sec a new gestalt.2 Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, for example, formed the new paradigm that superseded Newton's physics. The old mechanical rules were not universal; they did not hold at the level of galaxies and electrons. Einstein's theory resolved many of these cosmic and atomic riddles and offered a stunning alternative. New science demands a new way of seeing ourselves in relation to ourselves and to the world around us. Our understanding of nature shifted from a clockwork paradigm to an uncertainty paradigm, from the absolute to the relative. After Freud, Einstein, and Heissenberg, it became necessary to find new modes of recording and communicating these perceptions of reality. Many modem artists rejected the "Newtonian" sequential and causal modes of making art because they lost confidence in these modes to shape experience. Modem Drama, 36 (1993) 120 Shepard and the Transfonnation of Consciousness 12I When a new art fonn tears apart, as it were, the conventions of its fonn, the resulting tension emphasires the gaps which are thus created and seems to call out for a new mode of perception. As it has been difficult for our culture to accept the philosophy of relativity encouraged by the breakthroughs in atomic physics, it has been equally difficult for us to understand or appreciate the art works which communicate a perception of the Einsteinian universe. T.E. Hulme articulated this problem in a 1924 essay entitled "Humanism and the Religious Attitude": We constantly tend to think that the discontinuities in nature are only apparent, and that a fuller investigation would reveal the underlying continuity. This shrinking from a gap or jump in nature has developed to a degree which paralyses any objective perception, and prejudices our seeing things as they really arc. For an objective view of reality we must make use both of the categories of continuity and discontinuity. Our principal concern then at the present moment should be the re-establishment of the temper or disposition of mind which can look at a gap or chasm without shuddering .3 Sam Shepard's dramaturgy shapes a playas an experience of this new way of seeing. Consciousness, awareness, perception, simultaneity, synchronicity, change - this is the subject matter for Shepard's own exploration in writing, and it is, likewise, his projected vision for the experience of his audience. Shepard wants to effect a paradigm shift for the theatre: What effect would you like a play of yours - one that you really felt totally happy with. play and production - to have 011 all audiellce? Well, it depends on the play, but hopefully it would be something that would transform the emotions of the people watching. People come into the theatre in very different circumstances, expecting something to happen, and then hopefully when they walk aU( of the theatre the chemistry'S changed. What specifically that is depends on the material of the play, because every play's different.4 "Playwriting," Shepard has written, "has the capacity to evoke visions in the eye of the audience." Seeing is the key to illuminating the essential relationship between the play and the audience. Can seeing be evoked by a play? What is the state of seeing? What calls it into being?S...