Beauty, Truth

Published on October 10, 2004 By stevendedalus In Philosophy

With the exception of enthusiasts for reality shows, or odd balls like Picasso, rappers and heavy metal “artists,” Americans have always believed with Keats’ “beauty is truth, truth beauty,” even though we like to add the conditional clause, of course, that beauty is in the eye of the beholder to allow for different tastes. Still, to be honest a fat man is beautiful only if he dons a Santa Claus suit, or fat woman sings the blues. A pot-bellied defensive lineman is unbecoming no matter how good he is. The skinny lad who gets sand kicked in his face by a muscular taunter gets our sympathy but unless he grows muscles to take revenge we do not admire him. Although some Victoria Secret lasses are undernourished, men would still prefer to go to bed with them than the likes of Roseanne or Kirstie Allie. Despite their deceptive indifference, women would much prefer to lie with Bob Lowe or Michael Jordan than Howard Stern or Mike Tyson.

This is a culture from time immemorial that has always preferred the beautiful people. Michelangelo’s David is true art, gargoyles are but ugly afterthoughts. Parents want their daughters slim and pretty and if the DNA isn’t there, they strive through fashion and education to compensate. Parents want their sons tall, strong and handsome and if not possible at least clean cut and brilliant. There are parents who pretend it doesn’t matter as long as their children are healthy. Parents who have neither are content their children are alive and can be loved.

This leads, not to poetry, but to the ratiocination of humanity: not all in the chain can be beautiful, healthy, or possess wealth to compensate for the shortcomings. In this sense, beauty and truth are at odds, if not downright ugly for those trapped in the low links of a cruel chain where beauty is at a premium. Most of us can only idolize beauty but never dwell in its truth.

http://stevendedalus.joeuser.com

Comments

CamMeg

on Oct 11, 2004

As far as the section of your article that states "their are parents who pretend it doesn't matter " I disagree I do not think these parents are pretending thank G~d their are those of us that believe this that happen to have some of these blessings. This is a wonderful article and I truly in my heart believe beauty is truth. The superficial scene for some takes time to understand through life when it hasn't been taught in the home securing to value a "person" for who they are and the gifts they bring into this world.

I do however agree that all parents want their children to not suffer in the face of ridicule but how realistic is this kids are cruel without a strong foundation formed within the home we can only hope they come together one day to believe that beauty is in truth and part of that truth is in being secure within yourself of who you are and eminating this to the world.

Have a good evening~!~

~Peace,Love,Health & Happiness~ Extended to you

stevendedalus

on Oct 11, 2004

we can only hope they come together one day to believe that beauty is in truth and part of that truth is in being secure within yourself of who you are and eminating this to the world

Wonderful quote.

CamMeg

on Oct 11, 2004

Thank~you
Have a good evening~!~
~Peace,Love,Health & Happiness~Extended to you

WiseFawn

on Oct 12, 2004

Most of us can only idolize beauty but never dwell in its truth.

You just amaze me more every day. On my daughter's 16th Birthday, she was so ill. She was on chemotherapy and steroids, along with many other meds. The steroids made her look as if she were swollen, she could barely bend her head down from her neck and chin. She weighed over two hundred pounds. Her strength and beauty were amazing to me. It felt like we practically lived at Children's Hospital. But the looks she received when we were out from those that could only judge quickly on appearance, were something to see. To a 16 year old who saw the videos and read the magazines, and saw the looks of people watching her, well, you can imagine.

mignuna

on Oct 13, 2004

stevendedalus, i enjoyed both this post and the comments very much, as always.

mig XX

stevendedalus

on Oct 15, 2004

Thanks, Mig, WF and all.

L'l Whip: In a novel I wrote, a young couple go to see "Hunchback of Notre Dame"; after it was over the girl said, "Ugh, Quasimodo was so hideous I covered my eyes." The boy replied, "You shoulda looked, as Esmeralda did, she learned to accept him as not that bad."

EmperorofIceCream

on Oct 18, 2004

“beauty is truth, truth beauty,”

That being the case (if it is the case) you ought to establish what both 'beauty' and 'truth' are. Beauty is not a particular congeries of physical attributes. Beauty changes according to time and place and culture. In the Europe of Rabelais, of Huygens, beauty involved fat. Not being plump, not being curvaceous; beauty involved fat - go look at the paintings of the time if you don't believe me. To this day, the Indian and African male is drawn to women who, in the West, are the antithesis of 'beauty' - corpulent, fleshy, rippling in ways that are anathema to the men of the West.

There is no more 'truth' in 'beauty' than there is 'beauty' in 'truth'.

Still, to be honest a fat man is beautiful only if he dons a Santa Claus suit, or fat woman sings the blues.

Go ask a Hindu what he thinks of the anorexic women of the West. He will tell you he finds them repulsive. Go ask a Hindu woman what she thinks of the icons of Western male beauty - since they have no fat at their bellies she will tell you that she finds them both ugly, and unpropitious as prospective husbands, since to her a fat belly on a man means success, prosperity, and the ability to feed her children and see them grow to adulthood. A thin man is a poor, hungry man - to her.

This is a culture from time immemorial that has always preferred the beautiful people. Michelangelo’s David is true art, gargoyles are but ugly afterthoughts.

It's also, and far more importantly, a culture in which concepts of beauty (and therefore of truth, according to your thesis) have shifted with the vagaries of inclination, whim, fashion, and fad. And David, that glorious work of art, owes its existence to a conception of beauty which can be traced directly to one period (that of Greek Idealism) and to Michaelangelo's interpretation of that Idealism. It's no more a universal statement of beauty, or truth, than is Andres Serrano's 'Piss Christ'. Both are products of a moment in time, and one man's interpretation of that moment.

This leads, not to poetry, but to the ratiocination of humanity

It leads to nothing of the sort. The term 'ratiocination' means logical, methodical, reasoning. The very diversity of definitions of both beauty and truth denies the existence of any such logical, methodical reasoning in relation to those terms. Questions of beauty and truth lead to prejudice, which is no more than the inarticulate expression of desire.

Beauty exists only where it is found and its truth is not universal but particular.

stevendedalus

on Oct 20, 2004

There is no more 'truth' in 'beauty' than there is 'beauty' in 'truth'.

You should really take this up with Keats.He didn't define it precisely because he knew it was subjective.

Most of us can only idolize beauty but never dwell in its truth.

Put that in your comeuppance hat.

Even though your commentary is brilliant and appreciated.

AndyBaker

on Oct 20, 2004

Then there are some of us who reach a level of maturity that we can see the beauty in what others find repulsive

I agree little whip. I believe that beauty and truth are interchangeable, and that one always leads to the other. Truth is Beauty, and Beauty is Truth, in my opinion.

I believe that beauty is only subjective in the sense that we all have different interpretations of “the Truth”. We all have different tastes and perceptions, and that’s because we’re all at different stages of growth in the spiritual life. I believe that eternal beauty and truth underlies all negativity, all absurdity, and all forms of ‘ugliness’. It's as if they are all contrasts in a bigger picture, and as is the case with all epic pageants, the full picture would not be as rich or beautiful if it were not for the deeper shades and contrasts of life.

It's the person's soul, deep down, which holds the real beauty - the part which lasts forever.

(Oh bollox, I hate to do this, but I need to protect this shite. Copyright © 2004 Andrew Baker All rights reserved. October 20, 2004. Sorry

)

AndyBaker

on Oct 21, 2004

Little whip, I've just read your comments in Draginol's post, "You might be anti-American if...", and I was taken by your eloquence and intellect. The same goes for Steven, Sally, Mig and all else on these threads.

It made me realise where I stand myself. I often talk about “spiritual growth” and “maturity”, but the truth is, I’m not mature or grown at all. I’ve simply taken a dirty back-route to some higher esoteric truths by using a psychic gift that I’ve been stuck with all my life. I don’t know what to do with it, so I give vent on these threads, at the risk of being out of sync with other people’s views and wavelengths.

What am I saying here? I’m just apologising for causing any kind of discordant thoughts or feelings in people's minds, and for crashing in on this thread like a insensitive rhino. I’m also expressing my present thoughts openly and honestly. The good thing about JU is that one can openly vent and say things that one wouldn’t normally say in the so-called “real world”. And that’s refreshing and healthy, I find. Don’t you just love the film "America Beauty"? It makes you realise that there’s no such thing as “normal.” Thank God for that. Who would want to be normal in a world like this? It's more important to be natural than normal, I'm sure. Being natural is how we are when we're not trying to be normal.

Anyway, it's time now to get back to the real world, where I can restrain myself in order to say normal things in the normal world. My God, how much am I looking forward to getting back to the Real World?

Daddy, when can you take me Home?

Texas Wahine

on Oct 22, 2004

This is an amazing article. I agree that society is much kinder to those who fit the beauty "mold," whether we like to admit it or not. The slim, pretty girl gets waited on first. The handsome, strapping man gets the job. The cherubic, long-lashed child gets the teacher's attention. I think we all tend to gravitate toward, and idolize, beautiful people, even though we might deep down feel that it is wrong.

In my mind, that is one of the fantastic things about the internet . . . we base our feelings and judgments about others on their written words because we cannot be biased by their appearance. We give people a chance who, if we met them in "real life," we might be hesitant to give much of our to time solely because they were pierced and tattooed, or corpulent, or "rough looking," etc.

Society, and the media in particular teaches us what we should find attractive. Your example with Kirstie Alley and the Victoria Secret girls is very apt. Kirstie Alley is a gorgeous woman, but she doesn't fit the beauty mold (not anymore, anyway). I am working very hard to teach my young boys to respect women and to look past the physical "ideal" that will be forced on them throughout their lives. I struggle very much with self image and body image in particular, and so I feel the need to teach my boys to love and appreciate themselves for their uniqueness and their goodness and not focus on societal standards, because try as we might, some of us will just never be able to measure up.

I hope that they will apply what I am trying to teach them not only to themselves, but to their friends and family as well. I hope that they will look for beauty and find it, not in the super model perfection of a bony hip and smooth bikini line, but in the joyous smile and sparkling eyes of someone whose company they enjoy. I also think that when we choose to like, or especially when we choose to love, someone, we make them beautiful. We begin to love a rotund belly or a crooked nose because those features remind us of the warm and happy feelings we have for the object of our affection. We have the proverbial "rose colored glasses."

Wow . . . sorry to ramble on this way, steven. This topic is very interesting to me, and I enjoyed your article immensely.

AndyBaker

on Oct 23, 2004

I keep thinking about American Beauty, which I saw the other night, and was moved by such an enlightened film. Consider the following words, spoken from beyond the grave by Kevin Spacey’s character, who had just got shot dead by a frustrated neighbour, and had lived a mundane and ordinary life cooped up in a dead marriage for twenty-odd years:

“I guess I could be pretty pissed off with what happened to me. But it’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold onto it. And then it flows through me like rain, and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry. You will someday.”

Ooh, wise words Spacey dude. Relax everyone! Life is beautiful. And it never ends!!!

AndyBaker

on Oct 23, 2004

To me, its all about self acceptance. … theyre my feelings, no one elses, and i cant not own them. I can deny them. I can attempt to hide them. I can decieve myself and others and try to pretend they dont exist. That doesnt change the fact that they do.

How can one see the beauty in others if they cant see it in themselves?

Little whip, those are great words of wisdom. It’s true that many people attempt to bury or deny their apparent faults and negative feelings, in order to fit into the world’s model of “perfection”. But in doing so, they deny a part of themselves, and fail to find a deeper sense of inner harmony or peace. If we don’t accept or own our faults or weaknesses, then whenever we see weaknesses or quirks in others, we tend to react negatively, and can become hateful or narrow minded.

I believe that it’s important to learn to accept and love our dark side and our own faults and weaknesses - which include feelings of bitterness or emptiness (all of which signify room for growth and greater acceptance). By accepting our dark side, we can begin to love others as ourself. It’s not an easy thing to do obviously, because it takes inner strength and a good measure of humility and forgiveness. And that’s something which can’t be attained overnight. But it’s worth striving for, in my opinion, as it’s the key to attaining better inner harmony and peace. It can also enable us to see beauty in everything.

I believe that the more enlightened and spiritually grown we become, the more we can attain glimpses of the divine perspective, which sees good in everything, and knows that any form of negativity or ugliness is a simply contrast in the bigger picture. These contrasts can’t dispel our inner light, ultimately, because darkness cannot survive in the presence of light. Our own inner light (i.e. spirit) is of the same essence as the Ultimate Foundation – the Infinite – God.

In spite of the scars on my face, the spare tire on my gut, and my various (and sometime serious) character flaws …

Little whip, those things are not “flaws” at all. They are positive challenges for the soul, and are only temporary. We won’t take our flaws with us to the next life, just as we won’t take any material things. Rather, we will be stripped of it all – including our ego – left only with a humble spirit in a new ethereal body, and residing in the Real World. We will possess and benefit from the spiritual wealth that we’ve managed to accumulate on our journey so far, and this wealth will greatly determine the quality of our inner experience in the hereafter, just as it already greatly determines the quality of our inner experience on earth.

I havent seen that movie you mentioned yet, but have put it on my "to do" list.

Yes it’s a great film that one. It’s not to everyone’s tastes, I’m sure, but it expresses a lot of deep connotations. Without giving the ending away, it’s fascinating to see how as the film progresses, each of the characters are stripped of their worldly ‘fronts’ until their masks are eventually removed completely, revealing their true, naked selves. The twists and ironies which result are profound.

Anyway little whip, thanks for chatting and sharing your views. Have a good weekend, I’ll catch you soon.

Andy .

stevendedalus

on Oct 23, 2004

sorry to ramble on this way, steven. This topic is very interesting to me, and I enjoyed your article immensely.

I would never forgive you had you chose not to ramble. I love your style.

I hope that they will apply what I am trying to teach them not only to themselves, but to their friends and family as well. I hope that they will look for beauty and find it, not in the super model perfection of a bony hip and smooth bikini line, but in the joyous smile and sparkling eyes of someone whose company they enjoy. I also think that when we choose to like, or especially when we choose to love, someone, we make them beautiful. We begin to love a rotund belly or a crooked nose because those features remind us of the warm and happy feelings we have for the object of our affection. We have the proverbial "rose colored glasses."

Beautiful expression!

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