it was very cool to read that quote of poe. i am currently directing a
play about him and that quote appears in the play (somewhat
paraphrased, but the essence remains). thanks for sharing.
Shalom
David Lind
Trickster@postmark.net
Platt Holden wrote:
> Hi All Interested in Art Theory and the MOQ:
>
> I previously offered Pirsig’s theory of art by citing the passage in
> Lila where you see or hear something so good that it stops you in
> your tracks.
>
> Here’s another offering for your consideration—a theory of art
> proposed by an artist:
>
> “An immortal instinct, deep within the human spirit, is a sense of the
> beautiful. This is what administers our delight in life. But there is still
> something in the distance which we know of, but are unable fully to
> attain.
>
> “This thirst belong to our immortality, a consequence and indication
> of our perennial existence. It is no mere appreciation of the beauty
> before us, but a wild effort to reach the beauty above, to attain a
> portion of that loveliness whose very elements appertain to eternity
> alone.
>
> “When we find ourselves near the point of tears in apprehending
> beauty, we weep not through an excess of pleasure, but through a
> certain petulant, impatient sorrow at our inability to grasp now,
> wholly, here on earth, at once and forever, those divine and
> rapturous joys of which, in rare moments, we attain a brief and
> indeterminate glimpse.
>
> “The artist struggles to create such supernal beauty, to make one
> see or hear with shivering delight a sight or sound which cannot
> have been unfamiliar to angels.”
>
> Read that short quotation from Edgar Allan Poe to any group of
> students from grade school through graduate school and art will be
> completely and instantly understood at a level which no long-winded,
> complicated, academic treatise can ever hope to attain.
>
> Beauty, truth, goodness and freedom stand at the apex of a Quality
> universe. Art strives towards all four. But, beauty for the artist is
> foremost. By aspiring to beauty, the others follow naturally.
>
> Platt
>
>
>
>
> MOQ Online Homepage - http://www.moq.org
> Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
> Unsubscribe - http://www.moq.org/md/index.html
> MD Queries - horse@wasted.demon.nl
>
MOQ Online Homepage - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
Unsubscribe - http://www.moq.org/md/index.html
MD Queries - horse@wasted.demon.nl
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:03:11 BST