EIGHTH MEETING
Art
I. Reason for Æsthetic Enquiry:
a. Art (creation) is the service of religion.
b. Laws of beauty (completeness) may give us laws for life.
c. Will prepare us to deal more sanely and surely with the involved problems of conduct.
II. Art in the Novel:
a. Completeness in the story:
1. Exclusion of unimportant and irrelevant matter.
α. The “story-teller” in us all.
β. The distractions of real life, with its far-relatedness.
γ. The “outside” event in melodrama too like life.
2. Exclusion of author’s one-sided moral verdict.
3. Must not be “for” some characters, and “against” others.
b. Understanding of Life in novel:
1. False simplicity of poetic justice, of all good, and all bad.
2. Cant phrases offend because they appear imitative, not sincere.
3. Psychological and dramatic treatment:
α. Dramatic writer trusts reader’s insight.
β. Action is more convincing than description of motive.
4. Humor and wit:
α. Humor is knowledge of human nature, its contrasted greatness and littleness.
β. Wit is a juggling of words into contrasted or incongruous effects.
γ. Both are a bringing together of the incongruous, in a paradox of unity.