Tag Archives: aesthetics

Ayn Rand’s “Sense of Life” as a Tool for Aesthetic Reflection

Ayn Rand, concepts, and art. Two novels-of-ideas by Ayn Rand (1905-1982)–The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957)–and the individualist and pro-capitalist political positions that Rand laid out over the course of her lifetime, have had an outsized impact on the contemporary conservative movement … Continue reading

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Would Edmund Burke Have Approved of Artists Blending the Sublime and the Beautiful?

For Edmund Burke (1729-1797), in his A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757), our strongest emotions are associated with danger, pain, and fear (most particularly the fear of death, the “king of … Continue reading

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Practice Makes Perfect: David Hume Teaches Us How To Read Closely And See

In 1757, the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) published four essays under the title, Four Dissertations, one of which he called “Of the Standard of Taste.” In it, Hume attempts to tackle the question of why people vary in opinion … Continue reading

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Best Simon Schama Imitation Ever!

Here it is. _____ And here’s the real Simon Schama effusing over a gallery room at the Tate Modern devoted to the canvases of Mark Rothko. _____ Forgive me for being a Cretan, but I have never entirely “gotten” all the … Continue reading

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Ah, Gray Sunflower, Forget Me Not! The Beautiful, the Sublime, and the Moscow UFO Mothership/Cloud

When looking at the above video today, I thought of Allen Ginsberg’s “Sunflower Sutra” (in which Ginsberg eulogizes a soot covered dead sunflower). And it made me think: what makes this UFO-like cloud (seen last Wednesday over Moscow) beguiling? And … Continue reading

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If You’ve Never Seen the Film, “Russian Ark,” and My Review Here Gets You to Take a Look at It, Then the Blogging Part of My Life Will Not Have Been in Vain!

I can’t praise this film enough. Russian Ark (2002) is a single, unbroken tracking shot that: (1) lasts for an hour and a half; (2) manages to tell the story of two characters caught in the sweep of Russia’s epic history; and (3) orchestrates … Continue reading

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