Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Reflection #2: Imitation is Sublime

Aristotle, Poetics, On Rhetoric
Longinus, On Sublimity


Aristotle, the student of Plato, argues that imitation is inevitable, therefore; Art and that poetry is good.

Well -- I'm not in to Poetry so.... I think I like to agree with Plato; however, the concept of imitation (which originated with Plato and then was held in positive light by Aristotle) is in fact, art. I say the word fact because as an American; it is a fact that a majority of the good films that are made here are imitations of European films. Did you know that great summer comedy, Death At A Funeral, is in fact a British film? Or how about that cool vampire flick, Let Me In, which is really a Swedish film called Let The Right One In.  The originals were far better than the American versions. In this particular case, I would have to argue that Imitation is NOT Sublime.

However; my title is my initial response to imitation because all life is imitation in one way or another. For instance, all these theories and critical analysis done by these "classical literary artists" are just the same thing over and over. Questions over other questions with more questions to question the previous questions. I mean; c'mon! Can't we all just agree that things are what they are and that everyone perceives them differently so that no matter what we say, ask or artistically produce, someone is going to love it and someone is going to hate it. Or someone just might not care but most importantly, someone is going to IMITATE it. Imitation is life and therefore; life is beautiful and in every life (whether good or bad) there always lies a sublime moment. Longinus might know what I'm talking about ;)

Sublime does not need an audience, it just is. We saw great examples of these in class with the group presentation. John Keats once wrote, "Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty", while looking at an Urn. AN URN! Now if that isn't sublime, then I guess I don't know what sublime is?!?!?!

If your from California, you should know the band Sublime, which is one of my all time favorites. The lead singer of the band, Bradley, died of a heroin overdose only three months after completing their third self-titled album, which went platinum 5 times over. Would you consider this a sublime moment? A death of the lead singer of an upcoming band, only to have the band blow up and out of the water? I think it is somewhat sublime because if Bradley would have lived; how could they ever live up to this amazing album? I don't know if they could. Not since the whole ska, reggae, punk rock thing sorta died out....

Sad for the death, a moment of Sublime for the band's success.









No comments:

Post a Comment