Terry Teachout, the drama critic for The Wall Street Journal, wrote a fascinating article that was buried in the weekend edition of the June 26th newspaper, “Too Complicated for Words: Are our brains big enough to untangle modern art?” Here is a condensed version:The novels of [James] . . . . Continue Reading »
Jenson, again in the Song of Songs commentary, arrestingly described beauty as “realized eschatology.” He begins, of all places, with Kant. For Kant beauty is “the unlaborious coincidence of the actual and the ideal, the way in which some things show forth what they ought to . . . . Continue Reading »
“Kitsch” has become a key category in critical evaluations of the aesthetics of “mass society.” Thomas Kincaid, Hummels, sentimental novels and manipulative Hallmark movies are all branded with the label. I think it’s a useful label, but a student paper on . . . . Continue Reading »
Here. And here. And here. And more. And also here. Not for sale, but beautiful to behold. . . . . Continue Reading »
Start your week off right with some headlines and other items (not all tongue-in-cheek) from around the internet: Canonization Images at Catholic Eye CandyAdvent Preview: Watchman, Tell Us, What the Heck Is That Blue-and-Yellow Explosion Meant to Be? Unitarian Universalists Embrace Moral . . . . Continue Reading »
The Anchoress offers a meditation by Pope St. Gregory the Great: You should be aware that the word “angel” denotes a function rather than a nature. Those holy spirits of heaven have indeed always been spirits. They can only be called angels when they deliver some message. Moreover, those . . . . Continue Reading »
Bought two posters depicting the Holy Trinity yesterday for my First Communion class. This first one, the “Old Testament Trinity Icon,” I know well and love. I especially love the idea of the Trinity’s quiet intervention, as mysterious guests, to set in motion a history which will . . . . Continue Reading »
Adorno neatly sums up the intention and result of Kant’s aesthetics in a cople of lines: “the significance of Kantian subjectivism as a whole lies in its objective intention, its attempt to salvage objectivity by means of an analysis of subjective moments.” And, noting that Kant . . . . Continue Reading »
Adorno sees disinterestedness as a necessary stage in the development of aesthetic experience, but says that it has to be transcended by a recognition of the “interest inherent in disinterestedness.” Disinterestedness applies only to certain kinds of works, he says. Try reading . . . . Continue Reading »
Adorno writes that enjoyment is not the be-all of art. Certainly it isn’t for the producers of art: “If you ask a musician if he enjoys playing his instrument, he will probably reply: ‘I hate it’ . . . People who have a genuine relation to art would rather immerse . . . . Continue Reading »
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