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Found this while browsing in a second-hand bookshop. No way to resist that title. It sacrifices some depth for brevity, but as a scholarly (and mostly western) overview it's an interesting account
#reading #books #aesthetics #ArtHistory #Ugliness
@stancarey yes, looks interesting, thanks - just ordered a copy for the new year pending pile
@ChrisMayLA6 In a similar vein I can recommend Robert Garland's The Eye of the Beholder: Deformity and Disability in the Graeco-Roman World, which is narrower in scope but more detailed
@stancarey thanks... I'll have a look
#Japanese #aesthetics might unsettle concepts of ugliness.
* Wabi-sabi 侘寂
Embrace transience and imperfection.
* Kintsugi 金継ぎ
Repair cracks with gold.
* Yūgen 幽玄
Appreciate subtle mystery.
@philosophy @stancarey @nicup @codewiz
https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2021/07/07/Healing-Art-Kintsugi/
@SabinaKnight @philosophy @stancarey @nicup @codewiz This aesthetic has always struck me as elitist. Any idea of how far it goes in Japanese society? I presume peasants were not mending pots with inlaid *gold*, eh?
The question then is why do we admire the Japanese elite and ignore their attitudes to human beings?
@jayarava @SabinaKnight @philosophy @stancarey @codewiz
Very interesting question. But then a lot of art and beauty were created for / sponsored by the rich. I think the majority.
For example, should the Italian Renaissance art be dismissed for this reason?
My hometown flourished a dynasty of ruthless bankers!
@nicup @jayarava @SabinaKnight @philosophy @stancarey #florence #firenze #renaissance
@jayarava @SabinaKnight @philosophy @stancarey @nicup @codewiz
Alternatively it’s a great metaphor for life.
We all shatter at some point. At some point our lives are thrown into upheaval.
I prefer to think of my life as a series of restorations with that shiny epoxy. (For reference, the amount of actual gold can be quite tiny, maybe a couple leaves.)
l could’ve just stayed broken or tried gluing myself together, hiding the damage. Instead I highlight the crack & accept that’s part of me.
@SabinaKnight @philosophy @stancarey @nicup @codewiz
The #Kintsugi idea must have been firmly in Master Leonard's view when he wrote,
Ring the bells that still can ring, / Forget your perfect offering. /
There is a crack a crack in everything, / That's how the light gets in.
In my work I often battle with fear of completion, and this can lead to dark situations. #LeonardCohen's song is my poetic strength-giver in such episodes.
Those golden fillings are the light that gets in.
@the_roamer Just today i learned the word 'kintsugi'. Found this post of yours, which as a writer I quite like! #kintsugi #writing
Yes, kintsugi is an intriguing and beautiful concept. Celebrating brokenness and our attempts to make do with the broken.
What is also beautiful is that you have found this old comment and made a reply and that I found your reply. Wouldn't happen on the other site.
Picking up an old conversation without awkwardness. Long pauses in a conversation, without pressure to fill the void. No doubt there is another Japanese word for this phenomenon too!
@the_roamer You're so right, being here, interacting here, feels to me lighter, fresher, more hopeful than at the old site. (Though I continue there because I'd built up such a community, and that loss, if total, would sting. Maybe this is an evolutionary process for me.) Now I want to seek this longed-for Japanese word!