Relics & Artifacts

Our class discussion regarding the role of art in The Man In The High Castle prompted me to re-inspect the passage where Paul is describing his “certain emotional fondness” of Childan’s pin (p. 175). Paul notes the differences between a relic and an artifact that I think could add to what we said about the role of art in this novel. A relic can be defined as surviving memorial of something past, such as the ancient medieval shinbone that Paul describes. An artifact is something made by human beings; the pin made by Frank Fink that Paul and Childan are discussing. Paul notes that the shinbone has more historicity than the pin, so one could possibly assume that the shinbone therefore is more “authentic.” However, Paul goes on to discuss authenticity on a level of individual feeling, and “wu.” Through a relic, one can “experience awareness of wu” by looking at the object (p. 176). In this case, the wu is solely within the viewer. An artifact accomplishes much more because the artificer had wu, which he allowed to flow into the piece. Wisdom and understanding are no longer just within the viewer, but strengthened by the wu of the artificer. By contemplating what a certain artifact may “satisfy…we gain more wu ourselves” (p. 176).

Paul therefore connects relics to historicity, and artifacts to a deeper human emotion. What then is more authentic, the relic or the artifact? This is strikingly similar to the quandary in The Things They Carried with the two types of truth; happening truths and emotional truths. I suppose then that each is authentic in a different way, and as we decided in The Things They Carried, it is up to the individual to decide which they believe more. We may choose to believe the relic because we know the definite facts behind the object. Or we may choose to believe the artifact, because through contemplation, we may gain completely new insight that gives a stronger sense of emotional truth. Or maybe we don’t have to choose; we can believe both. Despite what we choose, we still understand that art is very influential in what is deemed “authentic,” even if that definition of authenticity begins to shift.