Feb 6, 2010

Talking with Chris (or the virtues of loneliness)

Chris is 60, thrice divorced, and, since a year ago, single for the first time in his life. I say "for the first time" because he'd never until now experienced any extended period in which he lived by himself. He'd moved from Mom's straight to his first wife's, from her to his second, and so forth. But now he is alone. To his surprise, he's discovering it is a nice way to live.

Feb 5, 2010

On beauty (1)
On beauty and injustice

"He... has beauty which... makes me ugly", says Iago about Cassio. Beauty -- not penis -- envy drives one of our literary canon's most diabolical intrigues.

Here, in a nutshell, is our modern aesthetics, too. The thesis that beauty is relative is pronounced most strongly by those who know themselves to be ugly. The same people produce ugly works demanding that we appreciate them. The plot is Iagonian: to overthrow what makes them look ugly. The strategy is two pronged: on the one hand, active vandalism, on the other -- verbal denial.

Democracy perhaps makes the success of the plot inevitable. At most 20% of us are good looking, the rest -- are at best plain: the theory that the beautiful are not at all beautiful but only seem that way is bound to be a smash hit.

Good old feudal injustice did not have to deny beauty: the powerful did not have to deny beauty since it was attainable: they could have it through force of arms (Yudishthira: "The cause of all war is beauty") or expenditure of resources (His Holiness to Michelangelo: "Thou shalt paint for no other man but me"). Why, by acquiring beautiful females they could in successive generations become beautiful themselves. (The looks of the ruling class over time approach its aesthetic ideal). But democracy limits the rulers' ability to sequester beauty; and it gives voice to those who can never dream of achieving it.

Beauty being unjust -- so few of us can have it -- can perhaps only be formally highly regarded in unjust societies; any society which is even remotely egalitarian will have to pretend that beauty is not important; or, as we have recently started to do, that it does not even exist.