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 Head To Head The Modern Antiquarian General Discussion Forum | Start a topic | Search |
 Moth & Tombo 204 messages | Select a forum: |
| Moth, Done a good job have I? So there's me, so Rationalist I should be banned from the forum, and there's you, the same presumably, and you're saying you're going over to the light side?! Sounds like you were ripe for the plucking all along, and should stop denying the spiritual catterpillar yearning to be free... Tombo, Your poem about Nature was perfect, if a little short: "Wow, man"! It should be on the school syllabus and kids should be taken out to see what the poet meant. Coincidentally, I’ve heard it recited before by people at ancient sites with fantastic views. ;) Please don’t think that liking Nature means I’m not bowled over by British Steel. Works of modern Man, deliberate or otherwise, can obviously be utterly beautiful. Turners painting of the night-time foundries of Dudley is a favourite of mine. I love the view from the South Bank. I think the Angel of the North is stunning (bit of a thread there). The new Wolverhampton Court building, bizarrely, is just right. And on and on… But equally, I don’t think our ability to appreciate stuff like that invalidates the special ness of our love of Nature, and it’s connection to Spirit of Place at ancient sites. I just think they may be two quite separate innate abilities that we have (innate abilities; there’s no beauty without an appreciative faculty. Or is there? We need a philanthropist on the forum). I’m not sure I have the foggiest what is the nature of our love for Art and Redcar Steelworks (or if I have, I’m not saying) but I have my theory on the other of our faculties, appreciation of Nature, as I’ve rambliated. There ARE, I’m sure, two separate faculties, the difference being (in my contention anyway) that natural aesthetics rests on ancient and sub-conscious association whereas the other “artificial” one doesn’t (how could it, if it’s artificial?). I could put forward, for instance, the suggestion that the term “lop-sided” is used to criticize many of the works of man, yet rarely so in a pejorative sense in respect of a hill. And how often do we wish we could re-arrange a landscape? More often, we accept it for what it is, “perfect” we say. How can it be, it’s got a billion elements and (it’s rumoured) no creator! (In this, I suppose, I’d have to define a garden as appropriated landscape, else this diatribe doesn’t work!) There’s lots of examples, and a few exceptions I guess. In favour of my thought is your struggle to dissociate your mind from the pollution aspects when you are aesthetically pleased by a factory. You even experience guilt during your pleasure! Blimey, you want to train yourself out of that one. But the point is, there’s not much danger of such anxt in a natural scene. I guess we use both faculties when we visit sites, since both Man and Nature are in the mix. But not Modern Man we all hope, I think. If he’s there, in any form, he’s usually a turn-off. This is another pointer to there being two separate faculties of appreciation: trees enhance a steelworks, chimneys ruin a country view. God can improve the works of Modern Man but Modern Man can’t return the complement. Lots of exceptions, obviously, but I’ll skim over those as they annoy me. But I think the broad idea maybe holds good. The works of Ancient Man, of course, are more than welcome aesthetically, as we all know. You say “We are a part of nature, and therefore everything we make is natural.” Yes, that’s true philosophically but it’s hard to train your mind to hold the same positive view of a lot of the works of Man, like Stourport, for instance. I’ve heard people expand your train of thought to speculate on a lost golden age when primitive man was in a state of harmony and bliss with all of his surroundings. If so, I think he had it easier than you and I. His surroundings were more nature-al and his “works” had much more the stamp of natural materials and simplicity of process. McDonalds (again!) is our modern version of his rough-hewn log table laden with fruit and I find it easy to love and revere and feel a unity with only one of those. Reply | with quote |  30th June 2003ce 20:52 In reply to: Re: Spirit of Place (Moth) |
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