“Art for me,” wrote I in yesterday’s entry, ” is any man-made object that gives, or tries to give, aesthetic pleasure, the latter being defined as either fundaceptual or anthroceptual (sensual or narrative) pleasure.” This quickly became, “Art for me is any man-made object that gives, or tries to give, aesthetic pleasure, the latter being defined as fundaceptual, anthroceptual or sagaceptual (sensual, people-related or narrative) pleasure.” At that point, I realized I wasn’t finished because I was still not sure how to treat objects which cause aesthetic pain. Tragedy, for instance–which some are masochistic enough to consider the height of art. Next on my agenda, then, is to show that even tragedy adheres to my definition of art.
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I wrote the paragraph yesterday before going to bed and lying awake thinking about tragedy. I remembered that I’ve already revealed what I think of it, but not all in one place that I know of. At the same time, I realized that the question of what tragedy is and does is extremely complex. Unfortunately, I’m still too blah to do it justice at this time. Nonetheless, I feel duty-bound to get a rough draft of my Dissertation on the Nature and Aesthetic Value of Tragedy and Related Pain- Causing Art on record here. What follows will be a list of various effects of pain-causing art that in my view cause pleasure–as they come to mind, not in order of their importance or plausibility. Later, I will say more about each item is on the list and try to show why it is there.
1. Tragedy causes one to experience the anthroceptual pleasure of learning one is not alone.
2. Tragedy, as Aristotle has it, arouses pity and fear, the purgation of which through catharsis, makes one feel better (anthroceptually).
3. Tragedy, or an artwork (or art adventure like a ride on a roller coaster) dealing with ugly, fearsome, horrifying or similar painful material, can, when the artwork is escaped, result in the pleasure of gaining safety.
4. Tragedy–effective tragedy–will contain details that give aesthetic pleasure.
5. Tragedy will cause a person the pleasure of seeing something conquered, at least to a degree, by art–that is, by an artist’s organization and expression of it.
I think that’s where I’ll leave this subject until tomorrow.