I. Corruption vs. Excellence
"The highest perfection of human society has ever corresponded with the highest dramatic excellence; and the corruption or the extinction of the drama in a nation where it has once flourished, is a mark of a corruption of manners, and an extinction of the energies which sustain the soul of social life."
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, "A Defense of Poetry"
Wow... that's just a lot to swallow.
In his Defense of Poetry, Shelley claims that poetry flourishes according to the rise and fall of societies; therefore, if a society is corrupt, its art will either be corrupt or wholly extinct, and conversely, if a society is rich in perfection (what is perfection, though?), its art is of the highest caliber.
Right now, my mind is a jumble of questions on this one. As a Christian listening to "the signs of the times," a lot of our society has fallen into corruption. Does that mean our art, our poetry, all our aesthetics are corrupt? Are they being extinct? Is the beautiful being replaced by the vulgar? In an age of such knowledge, are we truly losing the ability to make great art? Sometimes, I do wonder. Obscenities, sexual exploits, and all the vulgarities known to man are infiltrated onto TV and movie screens, into the pages of books, onto the vast world of the internet (all modern-day forms of "drama" and "art"). Shelley himself comments that "obscenity, which is ever blasphemy against the divine beauty in life, becomes, from the very veil which it assumes, more active if less disgusting: it is a monster from which the corruption of society for ever brings forth new food, which it devours in secret." Yes, obscenity in art destroys the beauty that it was mean to be. And there are times that I turn on the "art" that is TV, listen to the melodies of a new pop song (or even watch "American Idol"), read a contemporary novel... the list can go on forever... and I am disgusted by some of the things I am reading/seeing. In one of my classes here, we were asked to choose a book from a list to read for a book club. I read a synopsis of one of the books and was incredulous to see that the entire book was about one woman's sexual relationships. The "expletive-strewn narrative" was sure to please its audience "with this fantasy of sexual fulfillment." Is this art? Is this literature? Yes, it may have an underlying message, and it may be an incredible story of self-discovery. But it is mixed with the most vulgar. Is this what Shelley meant? If we look at the degradation of our modern-day society, and then look at the art we are producing... it looks like he was right. Many secular artists (I am using this as an all-inclusive term) are not producing the "beautiful."
But then I am lead to ponder what the "beautiful" and the "perfect" truly are. For me, and I think perhaps for Shelley, obscenity does not fall under this category. But then, is beauty subjective? At the end of his Defense, Shelley says that "poetry turns all things to loveliness; it exalts the beauty of that which is most beautiful, and it adds beauty to that which is most deformed." So, perhaps the obscenities are beautified by the art form; the art takes and molds that which is most abominable and turns it into the highest form of perfection. And then, I again wonder how subjective art/literature (again, I am using "art" as an all-inclusive term) is... just because I do not find a "fantasy of sexual fulfillment" a thing of beauty, does that mean it is not art, not a think of loveliness? And, going back to the quote I started out with at the beginning of this post, how exactly do we know when a society is falling into corruption, so that we can stop this cycle and continue to produce art of a perfect society.
Ahhh my mind is spinning with even more questions... questions that I cannot even fathom an answer to at this present time. So I will turn my attention to another ramble...
In his Defense of Poetry, Shelley claims that poetry flourishes according to the rise and fall of societies; therefore, if a society is corrupt, its art will either be corrupt or wholly extinct, and conversely, if a society is rich in perfection (what is perfection, though?), its art is of the highest caliber.
Right now, my mind is a jumble of questions on this one. As a Christian listening to "the signs of the times," a lot of our society has fallen into corruption. Does that mean our art, our poetry, all our aesthetics are corrupt? Are they being extinct? Is the beautiful being replaced by the vulgar? In an age of such knowledge, are we truly losing the ability to make great art? Sometimes, I do wonder. Obscenities, sexual exploits, and all the vulgarities known to man are infiltrated onto TV and movie screens, into the pages of books, onto the vast world of the internet (all modern-day forms of "drama" and "art"). Shelley himself comments that "obscenity, which is ever blasphemy against the divine beauty in life, becomes, from the very veil which it assumes, more active if less disgusting: it is a monster from which the corruption of society for ever brings forth new food, which it devours in secret." Yes, obscenity in art destroys the beauty that it was mean to be. And there are times that I turn on the "art" that is TV, listen to the melodies of a new pop song (or even watch "American Idol"), read a contemporary novel... the list can go on forever... and I am disgusted by some of the things I am reading/seeing. In one of my classes here, we were asked to choose a book from a list to read for a book club. I read a synopsis of one of the books and was incredulous to see that the entire book was about one woman's sexual relationships. The "expletive-strewn narrative" was sure to please its audience "with this fantasy of sexual fulfillment." Is this art? Is this literature? Yes, it may have an underlying message, and it may be an incredible story of self-discovery. But it is mixed with the most vulgar. Is this what Shelley meant? If we look at the degradation of our modern-day society, and then look at the art we are producing... it looks like he was right. Many secular artists (I am using this as an all-inclusive term) are not producing the "beautiful."
But then I am lead to ponder what the "beautiful" and the "perfect" truly are. For me, and I think perhaps for Shelley, obscenity does not fall under this category. But then, is beauty subjective? At the end of his Defense, Shelley says that "poetry turns all things to loveliness; it exalts the beauty of that which is most beautiful, and it adds beauty to that which is most deformed." So, perhaps the obscenities are beautified by the art form; the art takes and molds that which is most abominable and turns it into the highest form of perfection. And then, I again wonder how subjective art/literature (again, I am using "art" as an all-inclusive term) is... just because I do not find a "fantasy of sexual fulfillment" a thing of beauty, does that mean it is not art, not a think of loveliness? And, going back to the quote I started out with at the beginning of this post, how exactly do we know when a society is falling into corruption, so that we can stop this cycle and continue to produce art of a perfect society.
Ahhh my mind is spinning with even more questions... questions that I cannot even fathom an answer to at this present time. So I will turn my attention to another ramble...
II. Where Would We Be?
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, "A Defense of Poetry"
I have often thought about the journey I have trod to get me to this very day. I have watched how events in my life have unfolded, how the most painful periods in my life have been the things that have saved me. And yes, I have read books that have changed my life. Read things that made me who I am today.
But I never thought about the whole of humanity, and how different our lives would be if we did not have the great arts preserved for us today.
Let me attempt to flesh this out for a little. As I was reading Shelley, I was realizing how much of our lives depend on those artists and writers who came before us, whether we know it or not. Our lives were shaped by the writings of Plato, Homer, Emerson, the Biblical writers... the list continues on. I realized the other day that I have many Transcendentalist tendencies, and even though I had read Emerson before, I didn't realize how closely my thoughts on life mirror many of his thoughts... so subconscious was this internalization of these ideals that I was not even aware of it... which got me thinking on what other writings my life ideals are based on. Obviously, the Bible has a lot to do with it... but let's think on a grander scale. The whole of America rests on the writings of the Constitution by the Founding Fathers. Even if someone has never read the words of Thomas Jefferson, they are living out something from his ideals every day (yes, I know this may be a gross exaggeration, but please bear with me). And what did Jefferson build upon? Who did he learn from? The list continues back. And we here in 2008 have centuries of writers and artists who have shaped our conceptions of the world...
I want to come back to this, but sleep is calling me...
Ah, the curse of thinking the most "profound" thoughts at 1:15 in the morning...
I have often thought about the journey I have trod to get me to this very day. I have watched how events in my life have unfolded, how the most painful periods in my life have been the things that have saved me. And yes, I have read books that have changed my life. Read things that made me who I am today.
But I never thought about the whole of humanity, and how different our lives would be if we did not have the great arts preserved for us today.
Let me attempt to flesh this out for a little. As I was reading Shelley, I was realizing how much of our lives depend on those artists and writers who came before us, whether we know it or not. Our lives were shaped by the writings of Plato, Homer, Emerson, the Biblical writers... the list continues on. I realized the other day that I have many Transcendentalist tendencies, and even though I had read Emerson before, I didn't realize how closely my thoughts on life mirror many of his thoughts... so subconscious was this internalization of these ideals that I was not even aware of it... which got me thinking on what other writings my life ideals are based on. Obviously, the Bible has a lot to do with it... but let's think on a grander scale. The whole of America rests on the writings of the Constitution by the Founding Fathers. Even if someone has never read the words of Thomas Jefferson, they are living out something from his ideals every day (yes, I know this may be a gross exaggeration, but please bear with me). And what did Jefferson build upon? Who did he learn from? The list continues back. And we here in 2008 have centuries of writers and artists who have shaped our conceptions of the world...
I want to come back to this, but sleep is calling me...
Ah, the curse of thinking the most "profound" thoughts at 1:15 in the morning...
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