Aristotle saves Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan can be seen as a tragedy if we look at Private Stanley Mellish and not Private Ryan. In this movie I can see the story as a fable as it is a story and begins with a problem that develops throughout. Mellish has a strong love for his country so is willing to risk his life as well as the lives of others to save one man. The manner is very dramatic, and the music adds to the drama.  These are also emphasized through diction which as I once said is an essential part of tragedy. Sentiments and decoration are also highly used in Saving Private Ryan. In this movie the battle was never won and all Mellish’s trials lead to his death and his small seemingly insignificant goal was not truly accomplished.  As I indicated in my writings on tragedy, tragedy shows genius when there is no moral gratification, affecting or terrible. This movie displays the lack of these things as Private Ryan’s choice to not leave with Mellish lead to Mellish’s death and sorrow for years to come.

Plato is against “You and Me”

Lighthouse is wasting the time they used to write the words when they are obviously trying to prove something though they claim they are not. With the love felt for this woman that is being sung about the man should not be singing but showing her his love. He claims he is losing time but if he did other things besides writing and singing this song he would get things done. He is also not using his brain to the fullest as there must be logic to figure out his attraction or it cannot truly be love. This song appears to me to have little wisdom and therefore the artist cannot be a true artist as his soul appears to have been given fruitlessly to a woman. This “art” is not the true thing as it is art and therefore a replica; it is also not the creator so begins at being twice removed. Once I look further I see that this song is about a love that he has made further removing it from the true form. I have said that “... When any sorrow of our own happens to us … we (men) would fain be quiet and patient… “ meaning we as men should not show sorrow as we would be as women. Due to this the artist as a man should stop wallowing in song and make something of himself, with or without the woman that his song appears to be about.

Ficino Stares at the Starry Night

In this painting I can see the forming of the skies. This painting displays the universal idea of God as the center point. Fire, air, and earth are three of the ideas of the angelic mind and are shown in this painting by Van Gogh. There is also a kind of beauty as one can experience the art using the senses. I can see the stars in my mind’s eye as I recall with my mind the true stars in each clear night. As “the World-Soul turned toward the Mind and toward God ...  it found the ornament, from the Soul, of all the forms which are seen in this world; thus out of chaos was made a world” so too in “Starry Night” there is also a calm on the earth while the chaos in the sky points back to the way love connects back to God (Ficino 206).  

Plato’s Public Service Announcement

I’m writing today to warn the public of a dangerous and dissolute musician, Nina Simore, specifically about her song “Sinnerman.” Music has a proper time and place but there is no place for corrupt music in this society. Jazz is a vile tool used by artists to wallow in emotion; its influence is leading our youth to irrational emotion based thought. Her discordant tones set the soul even further away from the harmony that can be achieved through other worthy rational artists like Bach.  He offers the hearer order, logical applied mathematics, repetition, patterns, and every note influencing, creating, and organizing harmony in the mind. As I have said before, “imitations are ruinous to the understanding of the hearer and that the knowledge of their true nature is the only antidote to them,” (30 Philosophies of Art and Beauty) Nina Simore is the poisoning the carefully trained minds of our impressionable young. If we, as a society, wish to avoid the vulnerability susceptible to the deceptions and manipulations of tyrants (3Aesthetics- -Plato’s Aesthetics) we cannot let the source of our immortality be corrupted by disharmonious influences. Stop your children, your students, and your legacy, from corroding their rational facilities. We cannot allow the spontaneity and emotional wallowing shamefully displayed in this piece to dominate over logical, pure, thought that will lead us to the true Forms merely reflected, copied and distorted in art and mimicked in music.      

Dorian's Mythical Invulnerability

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, is an interesting, if at times rather strange, novel.  Oscar Wilde used elements of several Greek myths, such as that of Adonis, as the vehicle for his own personal agenda. He wished to disseminate his beliefs about the intrinsic value of art. He believed that anything that is beautiful has worth, a sentiment that is evident in the value that the Victorian society places on Dorian. Even as all of Dorian’s other attributes became further and further degraded by his immoral living and stories of his terrible acts spread, he was still accepted based solely upon his enduring beauty. However, I don’t believe that Wilde held this aestheticism to be the ultimate truth, because Dorian begins to doubt that his beauty truly endows him with such worth. The guilt that he experienced after brutally murdering Basil begins to eat away at the remains of his conscience, destroying him mentally while his physical beauty remains perfect.

    Dorian is similar to the heroes of several Greek myths, such as those of Adonis and Anchises. Adonis was a man of unsurpassed beauty and power. He “may die not from his self-inflicted wound but by the tusk of the boar…” (The Myth of Creation: The Gods) None of Dorian’s immoral acts had any effect on him, and his demise was not directly self-inflicted, as he was unaware that by cursing his portrait and attacking it he would be killed by the crushing weight of his immoral life. Anchises was another man of godly beauty and youth, and was treated much like Dorian. His beauty was such that it made Aphrodite fall in love with him.

    While the entire book deals with Dorian’s immoral lifestyle and actions, only specific, especially meaningful events are detailed. The remainder of the events is mentioned briefly, but the true focus is the changes that occur in Dorian’s psyche and in the portrait. The first changes are small changes in his expression.  Those small changes buildup, resulting in a visage that becomes ever increasingly horrific to Dorian. Eventually, Dorian comes to comprehend the consequences of his actions, and attempts to pay penance. But he cannot change his true nature, a fact that is made evident when the portrait shows the hypocrisy of that belief.

What's Truly Beautiful

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a beautifully composed piece of literature. The story begins with Basil painting the beautiful and wealthy Dorian Gray. Basil discovered Dorian and immediately sunk into a deep trance, automatically knowing that he must depict this mysterious boy. He portrayed Dorian many times, but one time he became disgusted with his work of art because he thought that he had put too much of himself into. This revealed his life, which is not what he wanted the painting to evoke. Despite his negative attitude towards his piece, Lord Henry thought that it was a mastery work of art. He demanded that it be his, but Basil denied him as he thought the painting belonged strictly to Dorian. Once Dorian met Lord Henry he began to worry constantly that every second of the day he was getting older and could never return to that former youth. This attitude, implanted by Lord Henry, grew and he began to hate being painted because it would only remind him of what he was losing.

Later Dorian proposed to an actress named Sibyl, but later broke it off because she was going to quit acting, and that is what he fell in love with her for. If she no longer played all of those roles, then there was nothing left that interested him. Sibyl in distress over the break up, commits suicide. Lord Henry convinces Dorian that her death is art because it is a beautiful tragedy and that he should constantly remind himself of this to help him through this difficult situation. As time goes on Dorian starts to live a life of sin and corruption and with that the picture of himself that he has in his room starts to get uglier and uglier. But if he is strictly naturally beautiful, then why is his portrait getting more unattractive? This is because something cannot be beautiful unless it is good.

Beauty, especially that of a person, is symmetrical and superficial at first, but once you get to know the ins and outs of that particular being, they become either more or less beautiful. This is because if something, anything, is bad or corrupt it cannot be beautiful. Once a person starts heading to that evil side, the more monstrous they become and they can only reach beauty again by changing paths to the virtuous side. This is why tragedy was not beautiful to Plato. Something that arouses unpleasant emotion and was based on sin and pollution could not truly hold beautiful.

Oscar Wilde; The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Picture of Dorian Gray is the story of one beautiful, innocent young man's seduction, moral corruption and eventual downfall. In the beginning of the book, we are first introduced to two of the three main characters; Basil Hallward and Lord Henry Wolton. We meet Basil and Lord Henry when they are discussing how perfectly perfect Dorian is; how completely innocent and good he is. Also how is the most beautiful man that has ever walked the earth. Lord Henry wants to meet this mysterious boy, but Basil does not want him to; we figure out later in the book that he has a romantic interest in Dorian. However Lord Henry gets his wish and meets Dorian Gray. Lord Henry manages to drastically change Dorian's perspective on the world. From this moment forward, Dorian's previously innocent point of view is dramatically different. Dorian begins to see life just as Lord Henry does. One thing that Dorian did do that Lord Henry would never, was fall in love with a woman; Sybil Vane, a young, beautiful, talented actress. Dorian falls head over heels for her (and her talent). She becomes so overcome with her love for him that her roles on stage lose their importance. This destroys Dorian's love for her, and he brutally dumps her. Sybil then commits suicide just as Dorian decides to turn around and take back his words.Lord Henry's influence on Dorian continues through out the rest of the novel, to Basil's dismay, until Dorian's eventual suicide.

I find it disgusting how sly Lord Henry is. Through out the book, I continuously felt bad for Dorian for falling under his "spell". Lord Henry's very narrow and harsh view of the world quickly overtook Dorian's perfect, innocent and good perspective on the world (which is very sad). Not only did Dorian lose his sense of good and innocence, but he also lost someone that was so important to him; Sybil Vane. Because of his newly shaped, narrow mind, Dorian viewed Sybil as a muse. Dorian's perspective on this relationship is very like that of Plato. Plato viewed love as wanting to possess something that is good. Dorian wanted to possess Sybil who was good, but when she was no longer a talented actress, she was no longer good. Therefore he no longer wanted to possess her.

Oscar Wilde's writing style is one of a kind. His pieces of literature are known for their witty and pointed styles. Another Oscar Wilde writing trait is that he's world renowned for his clever sayings.