WMV Music Web Log

I just gave away two books on aesthetics - I had had enough of them. However, it must have jogged my thinking. One of the books is an attempt at a Christian basis for aesthetics. Very tedious! And some foolish attempts to define "bad" or anti-social, or anti-Christian art. However, I do agree with some parts of it.

All the various artistic enterprises base themselves on a spiritual stance, which is the foundation of the relevant aesthetics. That is, aesthetics talks essentially about the relation between art and spirituality.

Two relevant (approximate) quotes: "You ask if it is good music. I answer, good for what?" (Pete Seeger). "It may be the devil or it may be the Lord, but you've got to serve somebody" (Bob Dylan). You can see this worked out obviously in any aesthetic sphere. Good to make money, good to advance a career, good to sell something, good to avoid offense, good to pander to the corporations, to the owning class, to the middle class, to the working class, or to the poor.

Or good to encounter the depths of the human circumstance, to share some love with our brothers and sisters on the planet. Or to stand up for the human species and testify about what is truly good about us. Or to reflect seriously on what it is we really are, before we all redissolve into stardust. My own aesthetic is fundamentally religious - I want to be shook to my core. Aristotle quite agreed!

One more thing: I don't think you can have it both ways.

Labels: aesthetics, spirituality