From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sat Jun 26 2004 - 14:58:45 BST
Dear Wim,
> You (PH) wrote 19 Jun 2004 11:12:54 -0400:
> 'Even though our ideas of beauty may change, beautiful patterns -unlike
> biological, social and intellectual patterns -- don't evolve and improve
> with time. The animal paintings by unknown early humans in the caves of
> Lascaux have never been surpassed.'
>
> Do they not evolve and in a sense improve by becoming more complex and
> communicating more "Meaning"?
I'm not sure. Modern abstract art for me has little or no "meaning." So in
that respect, I would say, "no." Also, I consider "meaning" to be the
province of intellect rather than art. Intellect explains how life began,
maintains itself and evolves. Art shows what it's like to live.
> In other words: does beauty transcend
> symbolic representation? I guess it does, or rather that to the extent it
> does, art can claim to reach beyond the 4th level.
Yes, beauty transcends symbolic representation.
> In your 16 Jun 2004 08:20:02 -0400 'Notes ...' you quoted Al Capp calling
> 'what passes for music in today's "culture"': 'a product of the untalented
> sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered'.
>
> That strikes me as a valuable observation, but maybe a bit too harsh. The
> booze that weakened the inhibitions of Pirsig's brujo against window
> peeping can also be depicted as a product of people not able to produce
> better quality products (peyote?) selling it just for profit to Indians
> whose culture was already on the verge of breaking down under the pressure
> of the culture of the more numerous American settlers. (Wasn't alcohol
> drinking introduced to Indians by American settlers? Maybe the brujo was
> able to call in his settler "friends" against the highest status
> representatives of his society because of his contacts among them when
> buying booze?) A low quality pattern may weaken a higher quality pattern
> and create room for a yet higher pattern.
Excellent point. I hadn't looked at that possibility at all. But surely
creative change for the better can be brought about that way. Thanks for a
great insight! The bad can drive out the good to open the way to a higher
good.
Thanks Wim!
Best regards,
Platt
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