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What is beauty, what is art?
James Joyce: A portrait of the artist as a young man
Excerpts from Joyce's novel
Page 4
-But you have not answered my question, said Lynch. What is art? What is the beauty it expresses?
-That was the first definition I gave you, you sleepy headed wretch, said Stephen, when I began to try to think out the matter for myself. Do you remember the night? Cranly lost his temper and began to talk about Wicklow bacon.
-I remember, said Lynch. He told us about them flaming fat devils of pigs.
-Art, said Stephen, is the human disposition of sensible or intelligible matter for an esthetic end. You remember the pigs and forget that. You are a distressing pair, you and Cranly.
Lynch made a grimace at the raw grey sky and said:
-If I am to listen to your esthetic philosophy give me at least another cigarette. I don't care about it. I don't even care about women. Damn you and damn everything. I want a job of five hundred a year. You can't get me one.
Stephen handed him the packet of cigarettes. Lynch took the last one that remained, saying simply:
-Proceed!
-Aquinas, said Stephen, says that is beautiful the apprehension of which pleases.
Lynch nodded.
-I remember that, he said. Pulcra sunt quae visa placent.
Cf. Goethe on Tragedy (in German) | Aristotle Anthology | Rilke, Letter to a Young Poet | Plato, Whom are we talking to? | Kierkegaard, My work as an author | Emerson, Self-knowledge | Gibson - McRury, Discovering one's face | Emerson, We differ in art, not in wisdom
