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The inevitability of death-that of others and our own-is surely
among our greatest anxieties. Mortality's Muse: The Fine Art of
Dying explores how art, mainly literary art, addresses that
troubling reality. While religion and philosophy offer important
consolations for life's end, art responds in ways that are perhaps
more complete and certainly more deeply human. Among subjects
treated: the ars moriendi or "art of dying" tradition; the contrast
between past and more recent cultural values; the religious
consolation's value but shortcoming for some people; the role of
art in offering a secular consolation; dying as a performing art;
the philosophic ideal of good death; the lively appeal of carpe
diem or living for the present moment; the elegiac sense of life;
and the two opposite parts Mortality's Muse has played in dealing
with war, the most senseless and unnecessary cause of death. The
idea of an aesthetic sense of life forms the basis of these
discussions. Human beings are makers in the largest sense of the
word, and art represents everything they make-civilization itself
with all its greatness and failings. Our civilization may
ultimately be nothing but an evanescent blip in the cosmos. Even
so, the creation of beauty, meaning, and purpose from disorder and
suffering defines us as human beings. In the words of Robinson
Jeffers, even if monuments eventually crumble and all art perish,
yet for thousands of years carved stones have stood and "pained
thoughts found the honey of peace in old poems."
The inevitability of death-that of others and our own-is surely
among our greatest anxieties. Mortality's Muse: The Fine Art of
Dying explores how art, mainly literary art, addresses that
troubling reality. While religion and philosophy offer important
consolations for life's end, art responds in ways that are perhaps
more complete and certainly more deeply human. Among subjects
treated: the ars moriendi or "art of dying" tradition; the contrast
between past and more recent cultural values; the religious
consolation's value but shortcoming for some people; the role of
art in offering a secular consolation; dying as a performing art;
the philosophic ideal of good death; the lively appeal of carpe
diem or living for the present moment; the elegiac sense of life;
and the two opposite parts Mortality's Muse has played in dealing
with war, the most senseless and unnecessary cause of death. The
idea of an aesthetic sense of life forms the basis of these
discussions. Human beings are makers in the largest sense of the
word, and art represents everything they make-civilization itself
with all its greatness and failings. Our civilization may
ultimately be nothing but an evanescent blip in the cosmos. Even
so, the creation of beauty, meaning, and purpose from disorder and
suffering defines us as human beings. In the words of Robinson
Jeffers, even if monuments eventually crumble and all art perish,
yet for thousands of years carved stones have stood and "pained
thoughts found the honey of peace in old poems."
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