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Trevor's Reviews > Poetics
Poetics
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This is perhaps my favourite philosopher of the Ancient world chatting about literary criticism � it doesn’t really get too much better than this. Plato, of course, wanted to banish all of the artists from his ideal republic. He wanted to do this because the world we live in is a poor copy of the ‘real� world and so art is but a copy of a copy. Rather than bring us closer to the truth, Plato believed that art took us further away.
It can’t have been easy for Aristotle, Plato’s student, to disagree with the views of the master � but disagree he clearly did. He begins this by agreeing with Plato that art is imitation of the world, but rather than this being a bad thing, he says that the advantage of art is that it cuts out the dross of existence and concentrates what is important. By doing this art allows us to look beyond the particulars of our everyday existence and see the universals. The lessons we learn from art are thereby clearer and easier to assimilate. Life is always lived in the particular, but art, to Aristotle, allows us to see deeper truths because it moves us towards universals. Characters may have individual names, but we find it harder to distance ourselves from characters in fiction than we are able to do with characters in history.
It would be hard to discuss this book without mentioning catharsis. It is a Greek word meaning purgative, and to Aristotle the appeal of tragedies was that they act like a purgative on our emotions. It is a fascinating idea and one that I think still holds. It would be otherwise hard to see why we enjoy tragedies. The notion that ‘there but for the grace of God� and the recognition that bad things happen even to the best of men are ideas that do have a cathartic effect on our emotions. Shit happens, but it happens to the best of us as well as to the worst of us.
There is always something nice about watching Aristotle slice up the world � he is a remarkably logical person and someone who is able to not only divide the world into its logical components, but to then say incredibly interesting things about these slices.
I first read this twenty years ago, it is well worth reading and re-reading.
It can’t have been easy for Aristotle, Plato’s student, to disagree with the views of the master � but disagree he clearly did. He begins this by agreeing with Plato that art is imitation of the world, but rather than this being a bad thing, he says that the advantage of art is that it cuts out the dross of existence and concentrates what is important. By doing this art allows us to look beyond the particulars of our everyday existence and see the universals. The lessons we learn from art are thereby clearer and easier to assimilate. Life is always lived in the particular, but art, to Aristotle, allows us to see deeper truths because it moves us towards universals. Characters may have individual names, but we find it harder to distance ourselves from characters in fiction than we are able to do with characters in history.
It would be hard to discuss this book without mentioning catharsis. It is a Greek word meaning purgative, and to Aristotle the appeal of tragedies was that they act like a purgative on our emotions. It is a fascinating idea and one that I think still holds. It would be otherwise hard to see why we enjoy tragedies. The notion that ‘there but for the grace of God� and the recognition that bad things happen even to the best of men are ideas that do have a cathartic effect on our emotions. Shit happens, but it happens to the best of us as well as to the worst of us.
There is always something nice about watching Aristotle slice up the world � he is a remarkably logical person and someone who is able to not only divide the world into its logical components, but to then say incredibly interesting things about these slices.
I first read this twenty years ago, it is well worth reading and re-reading.
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Elena Traduzioni Oceano Mare
(last edited Dec 03, 2009 01:37AM)
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rated it 5 stars
Dec 03, 2009 01:36AM
Ma sei bravissimo. Your reviews are always so clear and helpful. I can't wait to read your review on Kant Critique of Judgment and finally see the light!!!!!!!
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I must try to get to it soon, Elena, it is one of my favourite's of Kant's.
I love how Aristotle said the tragedy was to purge us of our feelings of pity and sorrow. Catharsis.
I think you are both right - like in so many other subjects the best first step is often Aristotle
Man...Trevor you read a lot. Looks like you inspired me to read another book.thanks
JGW
I agree with all your comments about the Poetics - it is brilliant and still the basis for many of our ideas about drama, and tragedy in particular.However, having just plowed/plodded through Aristotle's Rhetoric again, I can't help wishing Aristotle wrote as well as Plato.
Yes, I read De Anima a few years ago and it was a humbling experience. I've tried the Rhetoric a few times and that is also very heavy going.I'm actually a couple of reviews behind, JGW, the problem with taking holidays. But all in good time
Definitely, reading Plato is a pleasure, reading Aristotle, well... a 'touch' heavier.Isn't it interesting that Plato, the one who, in his Republic, seems to be banning literature, is the one who approaches philosophical topics with a beautiful poetical and literary language?
I've often wondered why some of Plato's dialogues aren't acted out as plays. Some of them, like the Symposium, would really make a great play to watch.
Troppa competizione! Eschilo, Sofocle, Euripide, Aristofane, ecc. ecc.!
Enjoyed your review very much, Trever. I just did write a review of Poetics you might want to check out.Too bad we are half a globe away. I'd love to sit down with you and chat over coffee.
Hi Trevor! I'd like add my own spin to the question of why Plato chose to ban poets from his ideal society. My understanding was that he was concerned about the potential harmful effects of fiction on the common man. Specifically that Homer's depictions of the gods of Olympus and their undignified and puerile bickering and cajoling was false and therefore would be injurious to the education of an ideal citizen.
Yes, indeed - nothing worse than having the passions of the hoi polloi stirred up.
What did Plato say: If you want people to be good you have to teach them to be good.
I have an edition of Poetics which situates it alongside Horace's Ars Poetica and Longinus's On the Sublime. I found it instructive to compare the three. If you were to sum up the focus of each in a word, Aristotle is catharsis, Horace is decorum, and Longinus is the sublime.
At uni the first time around we had a Penguin classic for Lit Crit with Aristotle and Longinus and someone else, but I don’t think it was Horace - but then I can’t think who else it could have been. My one word for Longinus would perhaps be ‘persist�.
Trevor wrote: "At uni the first time around we had a Penguin classic for Lit Crit with Aristotle and Longinus and someone else, but I don’t think it was Horace - but then I can’t think who else it could have been..."I have a copy of that Penguin classic that I also read at uni. Just pulled it down. Aristotle, Horace, Longinus. Interesting. I may look at this again.
We mustn’t have read the Horace, I’ve no memory of him at all. It was a life’s time ago, though.
Curious, I just looked myself and I have passages underlined in both the the Aristotle and the Longinus and not a scratch in Horace. Yes, a long time ago. Maybe I will read the Horace today. - )
