September Blog: What is beauty?

What is art? The definition of art is, "the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance."  Question 62 of The Power of One Socratic Seminar questions asks how the protagonists of each book deals with artistry.  For Peekay, Howard Roark, and the narrator of Invisible Man art is a huge part of their lives.  However each one of these characters has a different way of expressing or producing their artwork.  In today's society we are told what is supposed to be beautiful and what is supposed to be ill-favored.  Teenagers and young adults, especially girls, have to try and live up to that impossible standard of "perfection".  Isn't beauty supposed to be in the eye of the beholder?  Artwork is meant to be something that is beautful or follows "aesthetic principles".  However, as shown in each of these books, the protagonists express their artwork in completely different ways.  Howark Roark believed that his architecture was far superior to that of his time.  Whether or not Roark actually believed his work was beautiful was unclear, but I think that he obviously acknowledged that it was some form of artwork since he would do anything to construct his buildings and artwork according to his plans.  Peekay's form of artwork was boxing.  In today's world, sports are commonly viewed as art. As previously explained, many people face the challenge of not being able to  live up to being that "perfect" athlete/artist.  Boxing was clearly Peekay's strength.  He was an exceptional boxer and he was even taught that boxing was a dance and was supposed to be beautiful. The narrator in Invisible Man had a form of artwork that was also all his own and may not be even be viewed as art. This artform was delivering speeches. Like Peekay and Roark, he was excpetional in his field. Through these speeches, he expressed himself and his ideas. In all three of these books, each artist was passionate about their artwork because it was something they loved to do and would try their best at for personal success.  That's the problem with today's society.  We are told what we should look like, excel in, or even how to act.  We are viewed as weird or strange if we are good at or enjoy doing something that the media hasn't approved.  People are so different and have different understandings of what is right or wrong or what is beautiful and should be considered artistry.  Everyone has something that they are passionate about and that is their artwork.  Whether another person consideres it to be beautiful or not does not  matter to a true artist.