On John Keats’ idea of Beauty and Truth

 

I am responding to the discussion of beauty and truth between you and Scott Stirling.

http://www.mrbauld.com/keatsbt.html

 

I can understand how people see beauty as being truth but I can't quite seem to understand how truth is necessarily beauty. But I'm also having a hard time deciding what my own personal definition of truth is. I guess in my mind, it's a very wide variety of things. Mainly, I see it as factual information - something that has happened in the past. But I am having a hard time understanding how an actual object can be called truth. Maybe because it's REAL, I can see it right in front of me and it's not an illusion. But I still can't find the beauty in that. I consider truth to be a good thing (usually) but I think there are some people whose definition of beauty is too general.  It's kind of like how you mentioned in class once that too many people are given a standing ovation lately and that it should be saved for really important people, etc. The word beauty shouldn't be used as much as it is and there are only a certain number of things that should be given that label. As much as I try, I can't see truth being beauty. And although it seems strange, I can see beauty being truth. To me, something beautiful is very often something of nature or something natural. A sunset over the ocean is beautiful to me and I also see that as truth because it isn't man-made, it is a natural occurrence. One thing that I am trying to get my head around is the subject of human beings being truth and/or beauty. Are all humans beautiful? I can't quite decide what makes a human beautiful. It's more often women that are called beautiful than men. But is this because of the makeup we wear and all the things we do to MAKE ourselves look better? Because then it takes away the truth in the beauty so beauty is no longer truth. And are they considered truth just because their birth is a natural occurrence? I don't really think so but I'm not sure why I think this... perhaps because of their capacity for evil and lying. I guess I see the body of a human being to be truth (unless they have had plastic surgery, lyposuction, etc.) but the mind seems to be something different. But other than that situation, I can generally see beauty as truth. But truth as beauty is harder for me to accept. But who knows, maybe I'm looking at this entirely the wrong way.

 

Another thing about the discussion that I would like to reply to is your opinions on unheard melodies. I got the impression that neither of you believe there is such a thing. But I think there is. Maybe my definition of unheard melodies is different though. But when I look at a picture or imagine something in my mind, I can almost always here sound with it. When you dream, do you hear people talking? Because I do. And when I think about something that has happened in the past, I can actually hear it in my head. Not with my sensual ear but I think you know what I mean. As I type this, I am saying it in my head and I can actually hear myself think. Are you telling me that you can't hear yourself think? I always thought that everybody could do that but, again, I think I must have a different definition of unheard melodies than you.

 

~Kristy Hill