23 January 2007

An Ugly Problem

at 7:52 PM

The 'aesthetomania' post before was about being depended on beauty for undertaking the right actions (behaving young, spontaneous, happy etc), no matter whether it is only about being able to dance on beautiful music or only being able to go for attractive girls. But against which standards? Yourself maybe. Acting on ugly things would make you old, boring and tasteless; a big problem in case you find yourself ugly.

I just got back to UCU. The reaction was similar to when I got back from Hong Kong, basically: "you look like shit." Of course they are more specific, like that I am getting bold (people talk to my extended forehead) and look old (when professor compared me with an 2 year old picture: "what the hell happened to you?") This is nothing new and I clearly know that my judgements are not justified by my looks, I have always hated my face and behaviour just as much as other ugly things. I started to wonder, is the ugly only allowed to search for the same level of ugliness? Should one only like the like? Should the old enjoy the old and the pimple-head enjoy the pimple-head? I don't know. If yes, we would be fatalistically doomed to become boring and tasteless because while we grow uglier we should trash ideals and be okay with ugliness. If not, a person who finds itself ugly would either stay alone or always be stuck with a gap between what he likes and what she likes (because he dislikes himself while she likes him), actually making her old, boring and tasteless with the things he needs to act upon.

"Life sucks sometimes" Or save yourself and tell me where it goes wrong...

 

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2 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...
    1:40 PM  
    A somewhat theoretical comment on your quite personal entry...
    Superficiality is when one takes an object at face value and judges accordingly.
    Aesthetical values of objects are inherently social or cultural constructs, but are used by the individual.
    You seem to combine the two and construct an kind of aesthetical, face value perspective that becomes a sort of absolute truth (?).
    Does not every individual have the oppertunity to reflect on the discourse presented to him by society? Granted, society's discourse can be very imposing and hard, if not impossible, to escape but certainly you of all people must believe in anyone's ability to pro-actively engage with the constructs of beauty and thereby construct their own.
    I do not in any (american/ hypocritical) way want to say that "every one is a perfectly (!) unique, beautiful and wonderful person". But everyone does choose their own paradigm, of beauty in this case, and can strive to become their ideal or fail. As you might have done in your perspective...
    You say that ultimate relativity leads only to further depression, but does dealing only in absolutes and judging at face value, without social ánd individual context, make for a highly inflexible constrained worldview. One that would not make any person very happy, I would say...
    So far from the centre of clinical perfection, where this healthy specimen will now continue to help safeguard your health when you will truely be old and grey.
    Unknown said...
    3:26 PM  
    Healthy bas, thanks alot for the comment. Indeed I think the description of a face-value absolute beauty is a good way to describe it in a way. Although, with absoluteness I simply mean that there is just one concept of beauty that one recognizes in different things. So, beautiful music makes one experience a concept 'beautiful' that is the same as when one watches a 'beautiful' movie or person. Of course I believe that this concept of beauty changes continuously, I even believe that a new experience of beauty in one area (music) might alter the sense of beauty in another (painting). This is my assumption. The "ultimate relativity" is not supposed to be an issue here because I am only considering the concept of beauty within one person, and the effect it has on relations. As you say, maybe one person constructs one personal abstract feeling of beauty. The assumption of one personal beauty, I combine with the second assumption that acting on ugly things blurs the concept of 'beauty' and makes one act dead (boring, tasteless etcetc). If it is so clear what is beautiful, putting energy only in those few things gives more energy, acting on the ugly only sucks up your energy. This sense of personal beauty indeed severely constrains a worldview (although I dont think its inflexible because the experience of beauty does change), but given the second assumption I am suggesting that this limitation is exactly what makes one sharp (active etcetc); when judgements are indeed constrained they are very clearcut between ugly and beautiful and clear on what one needs to do and what not. The narrownes is about what is worthwile and what has value; the narrowness might be the focus on what actions are to be done in life.

    Again, thanks a lot for the thoughtful comment. (and for safeguarding our health!)

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