a solid basic premise

"The question of the value of poetry, then, is to be answered by saying that it springs from a basic human impulse and fulfills a basic human interest.  To answer the question finally, and not immediately, one would have to answer the qeustion as to the value of those common impulses and interests . . . As we enter into a study of poetry it is only necessary to see that poetry is not an isolated and eccentric thing, but springs from the most fundamental interests which human beings have."

-Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren,

Understanding Poetry

I must confess that, despite my long love for and commitment to T. S. Eliot, I have come to the conclusion that New Criticism is an incomplete method.  I will assert, however, that it is a necessary starting point:  to realize that poetry is on some level essential to human nature, and that, since human beings were created in the image and likeness of God, it is a fundamental impulse to create in some manner.

On a slightly different note, I was wondering today if all the poets--that is, those with poetic imaginations--are going into video games?  But when playing a video game, you're not really using your own imagination; you are entering into someone else's imagination, in a way that leaves no room for the sort of imaginative interaction that occurs in art.  I will have to think about it some more, but it's an interesting thought, at least.

the Main Point

Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant.  It is not in itself the life more abundant.  It merely points the way, something which is overlooked not only by the public, but very often by the artist himself.  In becoming an end it defeats itself.

-Henry Miller

Pater's philosophy

Pater calls himself an Epicurean, illustrating exactly how he implements this philosophy in his novel Marius the Epicurean, a sort of creepy novel where Marius is accidentally martyred because of his love for experiencing pleasure through beauty.  Of course, understood from another perspective, the love of beauty does, indeed, lead to salvation.  What one must keep in mind with Pater, however, is that beauty does not actually mean beauty, but pleasure.  Aristotle contrasts this to the virtuous life, where those who strive for virtue experience pleasure as a side, and do not need to go chasing pleasure as an appendage to life, as its own or an additional goal.  In addition, it is eminently clear in his writings that Pater does not think, oh epicureanism is the truest, most noble philosophy that will lead to the right ends.  Rather, Pater specifically chooses epicureanism as the philosophy which best fits the ends he desires to achieve; namely, pleasure.

Which leads to the speculation:  how honest are we, really, in our search for truth?  Do we honestly desire it, or are we, too, searching for whatever system will justify the ends we want?

chapter one due tuesday . . .

Contemplation

The dispute over beauty is a manifestation of the dispute over what the purpose of a person is.  For Bentham, it is to create a happy stable politeia where everyone is fed and warm and happy and amused so we don't get bored or angry and start killing each other.  For Pater, it is pleasure:  art is useful because it provides pleasure and then we contemplate our own pleasurable experience and so don't notice that our life is passing away.

For Aristotle, which is whom Pater is most distorting, what is "peculiarly human" is to be "a being-at-work in accord with reason" formed by virtue so that we can choose right actions, and this is what is most beautiful.  Virtuous action in accordance with reason is most beautiful because it is most fitting to what a human being is.  The next questions then, will involve the nature of virtue (in brief, the mean between two extremes) and of contemplation.  I am so excited about this, because it cuts down Pater and modern emoters right at the root:  life, and art, are NOT about our own feelings or experiences.  This is a good place to begin to know reality, but a terrible place to end.  Contemplation is NOT about one's own self, and it is NOT sterile.  Rather, contemplation is the ultimate action of which a properly formed human being is capable.  It is not some sissy irrational thing, or even something to which the elite few are called.  It is the fulfillment of our existence, and seeking beauty is the shortest way there.

Utilitarianism and Epicureanism

It all started when . . . 

When Bentham said that the highest good is pleasure, and the way to create an ethics, morality, and social structure is to promote pleasurable things that will keep people warm, fed, clothed and happy, thus preventing wars and death.  There is no concept of developing the self, or striving for higher things, because the world is only physical.  John Stuart Mill takes evolves this further:  he admits to a realm of imagination, which is the reason that religion and poetry are useful.  This is not the ideal outlet, however.  In Utility of Religion, Mill claims that the best route to happiness is to be able to accept and be content with the fact that all we have is this physical existence, and, since pleasure is the highest good, we should take care to fill each moment with pleasure so that we will have nothing to regret or wish for at the end of life.  A moment filled with pleasure, he says, is never wasted, and a life filled with pleasurable moments is the highest good we could possibly desire.

Where does this leave poesy, then?

Pater's Aesthetics

and how he's influenced the rest of the world.  Structure:  The Renaissance, Appreciations, Marius.  Wordsworth is key because he is the most immediate launching point.  The Romantics are also the splitting point:  Byron  & Shelley opposing the founders, Wordsworth & Coleridge, and Keats teetering somewhere between, trying to reconcile the points.  Pater's misreading of Wordsworth is one of his foundational claims:  here it is that he asserts contemplation is sterile (Appreciations).  Slowly, slowly building the foundations for this work--the culmination of my fling with academia, unless an MA in philosophy begins to woo me.

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Let it be hereby known, that in this blog, the term "poetry" or "poesy" is used with the understanding of including all forms of fine arts, including the visual, musical, and prosodic.