Subject
Query response: The "Beauty plus pity" quote (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. Below is a fuller response to the query. Ryan Asmussen is
secretly the drummer of the Boston group "Fathouse". Their recent CD has a
Nabokov butterfly cover and is entitled "a pin, a cork, and a card." (The
music is not VN-related.)
For the subscriber who inquired earlier...
Best,
Ryan
THE "BEAUTY PLUS PITY" QUOTE
The original passage from his introductory remarks about Kafka's "The
Metamorphosis" in his LECTURES ON LITERATURE (p. 251):
"We can take the story apart, we can find out how the bits fit, how one
part of the pattern responds to the other; but you have to have in you some
cell, some gene, some germ that will vibrate in answer to sensations that
you can neither define, nor dismiss. Beauty plus pity -- that is the
closest we can get to a definition of art. Where there is beauty there is
pity for the simple reason that beauty must die: beauty always dies, the
manner dies with the matter, the world dies with the individual. If
Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" strikes anyone as something more than an
entomological fantasy, then I congratulate him on having joined the ranks
of good and great readers."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ryan Asmussen
Administrative Assistant to the Chairman
Biomedical Engineering Department
Boston University
44 Cummington Street
Boston, MA 02215
phone: (617) 353-8068
fax: (617) 353-6766
e-mail: rra@bu.edu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
secretly the drummer of the Boston group "Fathouse". Their recent CD has a
Nabokov butterfly cover and is entitled "a pin, a cork, and a card." (The
music is not VN-related.)
For the subscriber who inquired earlier...
Best,
Ryan
THE "BEAUTY PLUS PITY" QUOTE
The original passage from his introductory remarks about Kafka's "The
Metamorphosis" in his LECTURES ON LITERATURE (p. 251):
"We can take the story apart, we can find out how the bits fit, how one
part of the pattern responds to the other; but you have to have in you some
cell, some gene, some germ that will vibrate in answer to sensations that
you can neither define, nor dismiss. Beauty plus pity -- that is the
closest we can get to a definition of art. Where there is beauty there is
pity for the simple reason that beauty must die: beauty always dies, the
manner dies with the matter, the world dies with the individual. If
Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" strikes anyone as something more than an
entomological fantasy, then I congratulate him on having joined the ranks
of good and great readers."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ryan Asmussen
Administrative Assistant to the Chairman
Biomedical Engineering Department
Boston University
44 Cummington Street
Boston, MA 02215
phone: (617) 353-8068
fax: (617) 353-6766
e-mail: rra@bu.edu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~