Yours sincerely, the Masked Logician
Jul 3, 2013 3:47:46 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2013 3:47:46 GMT -5
Our Kingdom's foremost philosopher, the Irishman Oscar Wilde, once asserted that "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."
That at first sight may startle some one who advocates the virtues of sincerity. Let us then attempt to explain, by way of a few examples, and with the help of many onlies, many reals, and the qualifying phrase "in a certain sense" in each case.
1) So: in a certain sense, the only real truth is that which is false. (Note that it is still truth!)
2) The only way to be truly sincere is - in a certain sense - to dissimulate. (Note that one is still - by definition - being sincere.)
3) The only real result of the addition of two to three must be seven (because we decide to use a new rule saying that prior to any addition every number must be incremented by one). In other words, we redefine "two" and "three" where addition is concerned.
4) In a certain sense the only true reality is that which is unreal.
5) The only way to be really logical is to be illogical.
Well! We can continue all day in that vein, only taking care that our redefinitions are done in a useful sequence.
Wilde was on top of all that. Few are. Here is the final paragraph of his essay The Truth of Masks. Most of the work relates to Shakespeare's detailed directions for the costumes of his characters - many lessons there for the freakish opera producers of our present day! - and only at the end does the author turn to a more general philosophy:
"Of the value of beautiful costume in creating an artistic temperament in the audience, and producing that joy in beauty for beauty's sake without which the great masterpieces of Art can never be understood, I will not here speak; though it is worth while to notice how Shakespeare appreciated that side of the question in the production of his tragedies, acting them always by artificial light, and in a theatre hung with black; but what I have tried to point out is that archæology is not a pedantic method, but a method of artistic illusion, and that costume is a means of displaying character without description, and of producing dramatic situations and dramatic effects. And I think it is a pity that so many critics should have set themselves to attack one of the most important movements on the modern stage before that movement has at all reached its proper perfection. That it will do so, however, I feel as certain as that we shall require from our dramatic critics in the future higher qualifications than that they can remember Macready or have seen Benjamin Webster; we shall require of them, indeed, that they cultivate a sense of beauty. 'Pour être plus difficile, la tâche n'en est que plus glorieuse.' And if they will not encourage, at least they must not oppose, a movement of which Shakespeare of all dramatists would have most approved, for it has the illusion of truth for its method, and the illusion of beauty for its result. Not that I agree with everything that I have said in this essay. There is much with which I entirely disagree. The essay simply represents an artistic standpoint, and in æsthetic criticism attitude is everything. For in Art there is no such thing as an universal truth. A Truth in Art is that whose contradictory is also true. And just as it is only in Art-Criticism, and through it, that we can apprehend the Platonic theory of ideas, so it is only in Art-criticism, and through it, that we can realize Hegel's system of contraries. The truths of metaphysics are the truths of masks."
That at first sight may startle some one who advocates the virtues of sincerity. Let us then attempt to explain, by way of a few examples, and with the help of many onlies, many reals, and the qualifying phrase "in a certain sense" in each case.
1) So: in a certain sense, the only real truth is that which is false. (Note that it is still truth!)
2) The only way to be truly sincere is - in a certain sense - to dissimulate. (Note that one is still - by definition - being sincere.)
3) The only real result of the addition of two to three must be seven (because we decide to use a new rule saying that prior to any addition every number must be incremented by one). In other words, we redefine "two" and "three" where addition is concerned.
4) In a certain sense the only true reality is that which is unreal.
5) The only way to be really logical is to be illogical.
Well! We can continue all day in that vein, only taking care that our redefinitions are done in a useful sequence.
Wilde was on top of all that. Few are. Here is the final paragraph of his essay The Truth of Masks. Most of the work relates to Shakespeare's detailed directions for the costumes of his characters - many lessons there for the freakish opera producers of our present day! - and only at the end does the author turn to a more general philosophy:
"Of the value of beautiful costume in creating an artistic temperament in the audience, and producing that joy in beauty for beauty's sake without which the great masterpieces of Art can never be understood, I will not here speak; though it is worth while to notice how Shakespeare appreciated that side of the question in the production of his tragedies, acting them always by artificial light, and in a theatre hung with black; but what I have tried to point out is that archæology is not a pedantic method, but a method of artistic illusion, and that costume is a means of displaying character without description, and of producing dramatic situations and dramatic effects. And I think it is a pity that so many critics should have set themselves to attack one of the most important movements on the modern stage before that movement has at all reached its proper perfection. That it will do so, however, I feel as certain as that we shall require from our dramatic critics in the future higher qualifications than that they can remember Macready or have seen Benjamin Webster; we shall require of them, indeed, that they cultivate a sense of beauty. 'Pour être plus difficile, la tâche n'en est que plus glorieuse.' And if they will not encourage, at least they must not oppose, a movement of which Shakespeare of all dramatists would have most approved, for it has the illusion of truth for its method, and the illusion of beauty for its result. Not that I agree with everything that I have said in this essay. There is much with which I entirely disagree. The essay simply represents an artistic standpoint, and in æsthetic criticism attitude is everything. For in Art there is no such thing as an universal truth. A Truth in Art is that whose contradictory is also true. And just as it is only in Art-Criticism, and through it, that we can apprehend the Platonic theory of ideas, so it is only in Art-criticism, and through it, that we can realize Hegel's system of contraries. The truths of metaphysics are the truths of masks."
