“The idea of some kind of objectively constant, universal literary value is seductive. It feels real. It feels like a stone cold fact that In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust, is better than A Shore Thing, by Snooki. And it may be; Snooki definitely has more one-star reviews on Amazon. But if literary value is real, no one seems to be able to locate it or define it very well. We're increasingly adrift in a grey void of aesthetic relativism.” IfsFeelsWellsKindMayIdeasRealFactsSeemsAbleValuesLostStarsColdStonesUniversalConstantReviewsShoreVoidAestheticGreyAmazonSeductiveRelativismProustLost TimeAdriftStone ColdSnooki Author:Lev Grossman
“In fact, the influence of Schoenberg may be overwhelming on his followers, but the significance of his art is to be identified with influences of a more subtle kind - not the system, but the aesthetic, of his art. I am quite conscious of the fact that my Chansons madécasses are in no way Schoenbergian, but I do not know whether I ever should have been able to write them had Schoenberg never written.” KnowsWayShouldWritingKindMayHas BeensArtFactsAbleWrittenInfluenceConsciousArt IsShould HaveMadSubtleSignificanceFollowersOverwhelmingAestheticShould Have BeenSchoenberg Author:Maurice Ravel
“The beautiful is and remains beautiful though it arouse no emotion whatever, and though there be no one to look at it. In other words, although the beautiful exists for the gratification of an observer, it is independent of him. In this sense music, too, has no aim (object), and the mere fact that this particular art is so closely bound up with our feelings by no means justifies the assumption that its aesthetic principles depend on this union.” LooksMeanArtFactsFeelingsBeautifulEmotionPrinciplesObjectsParticularDependsArt IsAimIndependentRemainsUnionsMereBoundsAssumptionJustifyAestheticObserversGratification Author:Eduard Hanslick