The Roots of Romanticism
Borrowed from Isiah Berlin
Unbridled Romanticism Chapter five
SESELFLF
dynamic
imaginative
not emerge in cognition
Wholly absorbed
Process in which there is an object
Not aware, as the absorber
Document
Aware when there is resistance Versus not-self
Is obtruded upon I, the primal nominative
Recalcitrant reality Impact, dominates all experience
Impact of the obstacle Identity is the collision
Science was an artificial construction to being
between you and what you wanted
Exfoliation of a particular self
its creative activity
its imposition of forms upon matter
its penetration of other things
its creation of values
its dedication to these values
Political implications
if no longer identified with the individual
but with some super-personal entity
such as a community, church, state, class
Then becomes a huge intrusive forward-marching will
Which imposes upon the outside world
And upon its constituent elements
Which might be human beings
Reduced to the role of ingredients
Of a bigger,
more impressive,
more historically persistent personality
Black Betty
nature is unconscious will
human is will come to consciousness
nature strives but is not aware
man becomes aware of striving
The artist is to delve within - Delve with the dark and unconscious - Conscious - By the most agonizing and violent internal struggle - Pulsations of a not wholly conscious life
Everything is perfect
Fully self-conscious art is death
Life in art is analogous with what we admire in nature
power, force, energy life vitality
bursting forth
Not wholly aware, pulsations within, of infinite spirit
Experiencing it, has the same vitalizing effect
As phenomena of nature
Otherwise the product is elegant, symmetrical and dead
I hate you
Perfect
Combination of the will and the unconscious empowers symbolism
A wild wood A labyrinth
Guiding thread is the will
And the mood Can only be expressed as symbols
Emotive force ___ Both vague and profound ___ The inexhaustible cannot convey the whole ___ Allegories and symbols convey what cannot be stated ___ Success is impossible ___ Merely to get nearer and nearer ___ An asymptotic approach
Language today and forever inadequate for its purpose
An irreducible element
of anthropomorphism in everything
Not reducible
Not embraceable
Not describable
Not collectible
Vistas
Finite standing for infinite
Material standing for immaterial
Dead standing for living
Space standing for time
Words standing for wordless
Can the sacred be seized
No, the imposition of form deforms it
