To Instruct and Delight

Originally Published Friday, December 28, 2012

I haven't asked the astrologer to concur, but tonight is the Full Cold Moon.  Actually, it is this morning, so last night's moon is probably equally full as tonights.  Again, I haven't checked with Master Sosostris, so I can't be sure.  What do I know.  I don't have the app.

Last night I was driving across some old countryside when the moon came up in a crystal clear sky.  There wasn't a thing between us but cold, clear air and empty space.  It just hung there lonesome, sad, and blue, but stoic, too, just something to hold onto in a ceaseless, uncaring cosmos.

QED.

A friend, an art director of some repute in NYC, has been giving me some advice about the careers of young models.  What she wrote resounded for me, not so much about the models, but about the function of art.  She was saying that a model has to have personality on the set, and that they have to be able to show a full range of emotions or else s/he is just another pretty face in a world of pretty faces.  But she thinks that a model can learn about certain emotions at an early age without needing to go through detrimental experiences--through art and literature.

And, of course, she is right, not just about young models but about the role of art.  It should teach us about emotions without our having to suffer them, about love and death, about joy and despair, about ecstasy and horror. . . .  I'd not thought so much about that for awhile.  The function of art--to instruct and delight.  Yes, I remember that again.

But there is an aesthetics, too, which like ethics is built on hierarchies of value.  I often love that part of art and literature more, the lyrical part, the style of the work, the manner of presentation.  I am going back to look at my favorite modern artists while thinking about this to see what I can learn--without having to suffer through it all, of course.

I'll think about that tonight while looking at the Full Cold Moon.