"Reflective grief cannot be represented artistically partly because it never is, but is always in the process of becoming, and partly it is indifferent to and unconcerned with the external and visible. Hence, unless the artist is satisfied with the naïveté sometimes found in old books, where a figure is drawn that could represent almost anything, which bears on its breast a plate in the form of a heart or the like, to which it points or otherwise calls attention, whereupon one may read a description of the picture, an effect the artist could just as well have produced by writing above the picture: Please note-he will have to renounce the idea of portraying reflective grief, leaving it to be dealt with by poets or psychologists. It is this reflective grief which I now propose to bring before you and, as far as possible, render visible by means of some pictures. I call these sketches Shadowgraphs, partly by the designation to remind you at once that they derive from the darker side of life, partly because like other shadowgraphs they are not directly visible."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Swenson, 1959, p. 170-171
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Either%2FOr
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Either/Or
73 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Either/Or →
Related Quotes
"Dear Reader: I wonder if you may not sometimes have felt inclined to doubt a little the correctness of the familiar p…"
"These papers have afforded me an insight into the lives of two men, which has confirmed my hunch that the external is…"
"A’s papers contain a number of attempts to formulate an aesthetic philosophy of life. A single, coherent, aesthetic v…"
"What is a poet? An unhappy man who conceals profound anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so fashioned that when …"
"People flock about the poet and say to him: do sing again; Which means, would that new sufferings tormented your soul…"
"My view of life is utterly meaningless. I suppose an evil spirit has set a pair of spectacles upon my nose of which o…"
"Life has become a bitter drink to me, and yet I must take it like medicine, slowly, drop by drop."
"No one ever comes back from the dead, no one ever enters the world without weeping; no one is asked when he wishes to…"
"Alas, the doors of fortune do not open inward, so that by storming them one can force them open; but they open outwar…"
"To forget — this is the desire of all people, and when they encounter something unpleasant, they always say: If only …"