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Aesthetics
The blade and the canvas
If you were angry enough at what it stood for, could you ever be right to put a blade through a painting?
A work of art can be beautiful, offensive, and irreplaceable at once.
Your answer
Read alongside it4
ReadingThey are not oursWe have no right whatever to touch them. They are not ours. They belong partly to those who built them, and partly to all the generations of mankind who are to follow us.
We have no right whatever to touch them. They are not ours. They belong partly to those who built them, and partly to all the generations of mankind who are to follow us.
ReadingWho destroys a good bookAs good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.
As good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.
ReadingWhere they burn booksWhere they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too.
Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too.
ReadingAll art is quite uselessAll art is quite useless.
All art is quite useless.
Nearby questions5
- A piece of writing moves you to tears. Later, you learn that a language model wrote every word. Does that change its value, your feeling, or neither — and why?
- Is your taste yours? How much of what you love would you still love if no one could see you loving it?
- Can something ugly, unpleasant, or deliberately boring be great art? If beauty is optional, what is the work asking you to value?
- You know the Sistine Chapel from images. If you went, what exactly would you be going for?
- The work that changed your life was made by someone who did terrible things. Should that change your judgment of the work — or your willingness to support it?