Escape
2:11 AM 21/02/2021
Art viewed as escapism—how very naïve. I suspect that this naivety stems from man's conscience; the part of him that induces guilt whenever he goes contrary to the identity he connects himself with. He has developed such a pessimism towards life that he labels sources of relief, comfort, glee, and all these pleasant feelings as hostile—in the way that they feel as though life, being full of pain and suffering, should at all times remain the only priority. The things that repels them from their miserable conception of life are interpreted as the evil that must be avoided. Anyone who puts themselves on the side of goodness always feels remorse at the presence of evil. Thus it was born—art viewed as escapism.
But of course, those who view art as something that has the ultimate purpose of freeing one from their conception of life, by which I mean life full of pain and suffering, are most guilty of dirtying the mass' conception of art.
By this, I mean to say one thing—art is not an escape from reality; it is its festival!
Art viewed as escapism—how very naïve. I suspect that this naivety stems from man's conscience; the part of him that induces guilt whenever he goes contrary to the identity he connects himself with. He has developed such a pessimism towards life that he labels sources of relief, comfort, glee, and all these pleasant feelings as hostile—in the way that they feel as though life, being full of pain and suffering, should at all times remain the only priority. The things that repels them from their miserable conception of life are interpreted as the evil that must be avoided. Anyone who puts themselves on the side of goodness always feels remorse at the presence of evil. Thus it was born—art viewed as escapism.
But of course, those who view art as something that has the ultimate purpose of freeing one from their conception of life, by which I mean life full of pain and suffering, are most guilty of dirtying the mass' conception of art.
By this, I mean to say one thing—art is not an escape from reality; it is its festival!
Comments (22)
Yes, but, why dirty? It's a fact of life, no?
Asceticism doesn't have much to do with art, or does it? I simply think art doesn't necessarily distance life from itself. Schopenhauer didn't get this right with the genre. Perhaps, not entirely but somewhat in specific nuances.
Art does whatever you want it to do. What does it matter? Unless you are a strict idealist...
Precisely my point.
Quoting Shawn
As do I. However, I think that once one treats the whole of life, the world, as art, the best way to appreciate it would be by, er, "treating it as a festival." i.e., as a celebration rather than an escape.
There's a simple cure for this naivete: Enroll in a college course to earn a degree in art.
"Simple," you say.
That said, these mind-worlds serve a very useful purpose - as beacons that reveal a "better world" as opposed to the world as it is, "unsatisfactory" to put it mildly. In other words, it's quite a difficult task to tell apart an escapist from a visionary.
I find the combination escapism and art to be packed with potential. The escapist is weary of the world - just too many things wrong with it - and the artist, naturally sensitive to aesthetics, imagines, creates and presents faer impression of how beautiful we can make the world.
I'm not really good with emotions on the envy-disgust-contempt spectrum. Generally regard all 'negative' emotions as unpleasant. But perhaps dirtification can be a wonderful thing!
I wish I was talented like that.
In the special operations community we have a saying "Embrace the suck."
A great cartoon (for the Army side of the house) is a grunt standing in the rain saying "This sucks!" The next frame is a Ranger up to his waste in the rain and mud saying "I like the way this sucks!" The next frame is a Special Forces guy up to his neck in the rain and mud, a snake in his teeth saying "I wish this sucked more!" The next frame is a pilot flying over, looking down and saying "Sucks down there." The last frame is a pouge back in the barracks who can't get the cable tv to work saying "This sucks!".