And what was a beautiful woman? For him, beauty was something far more powerful than what fashion dictates and consensus decrees. It was both what creates love and what love creates. For Harry, because his sight was clear, the world was filled with beautiful women, whether the world called them that or not.
In Sunlight and In Shadow by Mark Helprin
Beauty is in fact something far more powerful than what fashion dictates and consensus decrees. It moves through the world, a ghost that illuminates everything, but can only be seen by the perceptive, and perhaps then only dimly. It is an historically difficult thing to define, I certainly have tried and failed often enough, but that is because we are trying to use physical terms to describe a non-physical thing. The answer “I know it when I see it” is over inclusive. Beauty moves all of us in ways that is impossible for any other creature that we’re aware of; ground hogs don’t stop and stare at the sunset or the moonlight on the snow.
For Harry, the protagonist in In Sunlight and In Shadow, this quality makes a woman beautiful “whether the world called them that or not.” Beauty reveals its presence as many qualities; refracted through the natural world it appears as a smile, a tear, a hug, an insightful comment, an appreciation of the self’s distinctiveness and of the beauty in others, grace, good taste. We all know this. Is a woman ever ugly when she smiles? Is a man ever ugly when he comforts a crying child?
If it is any good, an artistic photograph is an image of the shadow beauty casts as it moves through the world; great photographs convey its presence in even the oddest of places or faces. Man is a unique witness to the world, creating meaning for himself through his understanding of what he has experienced. The artist’s job is to expand this understanding of the meaning of life by revealing the beauty that is actually present in the world and in himself, a beauty that he is all too frequently blind to. All the worldly crap that’s been piled up, masking the beauty that is there, needs to be brushed away or reorganized by the artist so that the audience can better appreciate the richness of the experience of life, and by appreciating this richness to better understand that man only glimpses fragmented parts of a greater reality. The fact is that life is a mystery that we grope to understand; the light of beauty allows man to see more of the world that is around him, but beyond his physical senses.
Blog No. 80: The ghost of beauty
And what was a beautiful woman? For him, beauty was something far more powerful than what fashion dictates and consensus decrees. It was both what creates love and what love creates. For Harry, because his sight was clear, the world was filled with beautiful women, whether the world called them that or not.
In Sunlight and In Shadow by Mark Helprin
Beauty is in fact something far more powerful than what fashion dictates and consensus decrees. It moves through the world, a ghost that illuminates everything, but can only be seen by the perceptive, and perhaps then only dimly. It is an historically difficult thing to define, I certainly have tried and failed often enough, but that is because we are trying to use physical terms to describe a non-physical thing. The answer “I know it when I see it” is over inclusive. Beauty moves all of us in ways that is impossible for any other creature that we’re aware of; ground hogs don’t stop and stare at the sunset or the moonlight on the snow.
For Harry, the protagonist in In Sunlight and In Shadow, this quality makes a woman beautiful “whether the world called them that or not.” Beauty reveals its presence as many qualities; refracted through the natural world it appears as a smile, a tear, a hug, an insightful comment, an appreciation of the self’s distinctiveness and of the beauty in others, grace, good taste. We all know this. Is a woman ever ugly when she smiles? Is a man ever ugly when he comforts a crying child?
If it is any good, an artistic photograph is an image of the shadow beauty casts as it moves through the world; great photographs convey its presence in even the oddest of places or faces. Man is a unique witness to the world, creating meaning for himself through his understanding of what he has experienced. The artist’s job is to expand this understanding of the meaning of life by revealing the beauty that is actually present in the world and in himself, a beauty that he is all too frequently blind to. All the worldly crap that’s been piled up, masking the beauty that is there, needs to be brushed away or reorganized by the artist so that the audience can better appreciate the richness of the experience of life, and by appreciating this richness to better understand that man only glimpses fragmented parts of a greater reality. The fact is that life is a mystery that we grope to understand; the light of beauty allows man to see more of the world that is around him, but beyond his physical senses.