"Beauty is truth, truth beauty"
— John Keats (1819)
Your arms would not be able to stretch as far as necessary to form an adequate gesture for beauty
You know that, don't you?
So... beauty remains in the impossibilities of the body
— "Beauty" - Einsturzende Neubaten (2000)
How do we get from John Keats musing upon the small time that generations of art influence our lives to the once-destructive musical urges of Einsturzende Neubaten expanding it to the unexplainable and existing as one of the handfuls of impossibilities? Is that 180 years of time really a blink in the eye in the history of beauty and art? Or does it remain indescribable so that we each maintain our own standards of what it is and the "surprise" elicits a reaction in opposition to summoning a stored emotion?
The answer lies somewhere in the "body" of the Aestheticism movement. With the Keats-ian clarion call "Art for Art's Sake," the Aesthetes declared that art should not exist for social, political, or moral purposes. Back as far the 1790s, Immanuel Kant wondered if Man was not only a creation of beauty but continued to function because of it. Not necessarily in pursuit, instead wondering that movements would come and go, but the art that had been critiqued as "beautiful" remained. In the 1860s, Oxfordian literature and art professor Walter Pater theorized that after years of living in the shadow of Victorian England's strict moral code, beauty was somewhat lost. After devoting years of study to The Renaissance, in his 1889 essay "On Style," Pater wrote "Life is short; they live constantly under the shadow of death. So they hurry to enjoy. Pleasure lies in one's sensations and experiences being derived from the beautiful."
So, as far back as those rebellious Decadent poets in Paris of the 1830s like Charles Baudelaire, the abandonment of any rules would lead to some sort of breakthrough. Further, refusing to follow most of the regulations that social conventions and conformity place upon oneself, could take one even further in discoveries of "the body" of beauty. Given Pater's education and volumes of study, his sober (non-decadent) take was beauty was a part of the form, manner, and especially style of literature. So, in reverse to assess beauty in a work one should not only criticize and analyze but find the beauty within it.
Oscar Wilde was born in Ireland to a family of devoted academics. His father was an oto-optometric eye surgeon who researched and wrote about anthropology in his spare time. His mother wrote poetry under an assumed name ("Speranza") even sending it to Irish revolutionaries. Young Oscar learned foreign languages at a young age from his French nursemaid and German governess. After nine years of being educated at home, Wilde was off to school where he quickly earned a reputation as a voluminous reader and fascinating storyteller. His study of the classics and success with Greek and Latin texts earned Wilde a scholarship to Trinity College in Dublin where he presented a paper in 1874 entitled "Aesthetic Morality." Wilde's success at Trinity led to his winning a hard-fought scholarship to Magdalen College in Oxford.
Arriving at his new school, Wilde had two goals. The first was meeting the famous art critic John Ruskin. That task proved to be easy as Ruskin was gathering students to help him a road in his neighborhood where there was only a swamp. After being afforded the privilege of using Ruskin's "special wheelbarrow," Wilde connected with Ruskin despite their differences on art. Ruskin believed that art was "useless," as useless as the road they built which sunk a year later. Two years later, Wilde accomplished his second goal: meeting Walter Pater. By this time, Wilde had begun decorating his room with 'objets d'art' as well as a half-completed portrait.
It was through Pater that Wilde became totally devoted to art. Ruskin would say art somehow must apply to the betterment of society. Pater would counter that each moment on earth must be completely enjoyed. Between the opposing philosophes, Wilde would become the world's most famous Aesthete saying "I want to eat of the fruit of all the gardens in the world."
It was not long after graduation that Wilde moved to London and became the toast of high society. His wit and repartee even rewarded him with a trip to America in 1881 where he could lecture on being an Aesthete. Eventually, Wilde took up writing for the stage. His final work 1895's "The Importance of Being Earnest" actually builds a case for Aestheticism through its characters savoring life to its fullest. However, Wilde the cynic also emerges as the more Victorian characters seeking revenge either to protect themselves or their way of life.
"Earnest" is largely a play about secret or hidden identities. The high notes of drawing room drama are both funny and tense. Algernon discovers that his best friend, Ernest has come to propose to his sister Gwendolyn. In control of their destiny with their strict, buttoned-up parents, Algernon demands to know why Ernest left his cigarette case there on his last visit. Once Algernon produces it, he demands an explanation for the inscription "From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear uncle Jack."
Ernest explains that he is in fact Jack in the country and Ernest in the city. His double life is to protect his past (a common conceit in many Wilde works.) At the same time, in idle conversation, Algernon confesses to using an imaginary creation named Bunbury to excuse himself from dinners and events he does not want to attend. Wilde is mirroring high society and making them laugh at themselves. However, even as the play takes a few Shakespearean turns, the sense of competition and maintaining one's place in the hierarchy emerges. This is where Wilde is making high-tension comedy (especially with mistaken identities.) While it is beautifully written with quotable lines following each other in great succession. One cannot help to wonder, did Wilde have a true purpose in this play? The name Ernest is in direct response to "earnestness" which was said to exist as the highest virtue among Victorians. In addition, there is a level of mistrust among all the characters that lends to them all possibly wearing false fronts and perhaps covering up their past as well. In the end, "Earnest" makes you think could a moralist have written this play to mock aesthetes?
However, like all good Aesthetes, we are to turn down the analysis (even how it could apply to Wilde's life) and search for the beauty within. That opportunity gives you more vivid enjoyment of the great lengths each character (even minor ones like Miss Prism) goes to match the delivery and even rhythm of what is being said. Parsing the lines takes you all the way back to the prose poetics of Baudelaire and then forward to Dorothy Parker (Algernon says "The very essence of romance is uncertainty.") The joy and beauty of "Earnest" is in the phrasing.
"The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public." While not important to the plot, it is a retort that is both a sly callback and a vivid comparison. Or perhaps a line from Lady Bracknell that on its surface seems callous and perhaps snobby. "I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shilly-shallying with the question is absurd. Nor do I in any way approve of the modern sympathy with invalids." said with tongue firmly in cheek, when you read it, it almost implies that Lady Bracknell knows the truth about Bunbury.
While "Earnest" ended Wilde's career on stage, it was a true beginning for the appreciation of Aestheticism. With just five years left in the 19th Century, Victorianism was waning. However, not all change was welcome. A feud with the Marquess de Queensberry led to a high-profile trial of Wilde that put his private life on trial. Despite his time as the darling of the upper-class set, very few friends came to defend his actions. He was sentenced to prison just fifteen weeks after "Earnest" wowed everyone on the London stage. Two years later, he re-emerged as a broken man. On November 30, 1900, Oscar Wilde died from meningitis possibly contracted from an injury while behind bars. After homosexuality was decriminalized in 1967, Wilde was given a stained glass window in Westminster Abbey above the monument to Geoffrey Chaucer.
"Art never expresses anything but itself."
— Oscar Wilde.
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Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
New music this week
LUCINDA WILLIAMS - Stories From A Rock N'Roll Heart [LP/CD](Highway 20/Thirty Tigers/The Orchard)
Now 70, Lucinda Williams survived a stroke in 2020 to get back on the road in 2021. Like her memoir "Don't Tell Anybody The Secrets I Told You," "Rock N'Roll Heart" feels like a collection of memories. Like her more poetic writing, Williams has returned to her artful, rhythmic repetition. "Stolen Moments" is oddly poignant in chronicling her search for digging through the memory banks. While Williams has written a lot of love songs before, these feel universal. When she sings with Bruce Springsteen (uncredited) on "New York Comeback," she can tell you all about the show and city in detail, but the implication is that this is her welcome back.
ALEX G - Live From Union Transfer [LP](Domino)
This limited edition/in-store only-for-sale LIVE album from Indie phenom Alex G. is a rarity in the age of streaming offerings and temporarily downloadable collections. "Live From Union Transfer" was recorded over three nights of concerts in Philadelphia mostly pulling tracks from his last critically-acclaimed album "God Save The Animals."
FRANK ZAPPA - Funky Nothingness [2LP/3CD](Zappa/UME)
Once Frank earned unlimited access to the studio, he was a recording maven. Following his now-classic solo debut 1969's "Hot Rats," Zappa reconvened some of the band for another pass at some Jazz-oriented Funky Rock. Recorded between February and March 1970 at the Record Plant, "Funky Nothingness" is another shot of R&B with Don "Sugarcane Harris" on vocals and violin. Many of these tracks look forward to "Chunga's Revenge" and even "Apostrophe (')."
BAXTER DURY - I Thought I Was Better Than You [LP/CD](Heavenly/AMPED)
For so long, Baxter Dury has been a kind of wily narrator. With the commanding bellow (his appearance at the end of Fat White Family's brilliant "Tastes Good With The Money" is still a manic thrill) and the similar Upminster rant of his father (as the title questions - although he is more velvety, while Ian was more bulldog), Baxter's flavor ("Samurai") has been long aided by heavenly background singers and slinky beats. "I Thought I Was Better Than You" is the first record where we really get to know him. The proceedings are still undeniably funky ("Aylesbury Boy" and “Leon”) and rooted in Hip-Hop-meets-SynthPop ("Crashes.") This is Baxter as the protagonist of his own evaluation, and singers Eska Mtungwazi, JGrrey, and Madeline Hart as conscience, counselor, and Greek chorus. Producer Paul White keeps the beats and sound beds booming and spartan. He knows (they all know, really,) Dury is far better and everyone here gives him all the space he needs to figure it out ("Crowded Rooms") and take it to heart (the lump-in-your-throat closer "Glows.")
ARTHUR RUSSELL - Picture of Bunny Rabbit [LP/CD](Audika)
Arthur Russell is a bit of a conundrum in both Dance Music history and even Rock N'Roll. Raised in the middle of nowhere Iowa, Russell became one of the key progenitors of original on New York City's Lower East Side. With his cello, voice, and drum machine, Russell gave some of the underground dance clubs their biggest hits. As Loose Joints, Russell's "Is It All Over My Face" is now a Seventies Disco standard in revival clubs. In addition to this, he wrote, composed, and recorded more melodic and evocative cuts with only his voice and cello (plus other minimal instruments and sounds.) His work culminated in 1986's "World of Echo," a spacy, ambient but heartfelt set of songs. Its blurry-focused mesmerizing music was misunderstood in its time. However, after years of being passed around between critics, fans, and artists looking to him for inspiration, it is now a classic. Digging in his gigantic archive of tapes revealed a companion set of formative tracks that are of a similar otherworldly mood and just as intimate. Like "World of Echo," Russell could manufacture sounds that were unidentifiable from regular resources. These new cuts from the archive shed new light on the glory of his minimalism and beauty. Sadly, we lost Russell shortly after this to HIV. First, the chemotherapy damaged his throat and then his health weakened as he worked on the follow-up to "World of Echo." When he passed away in 1992, Arthur Russell left behind nearly 1000 tapes including 800 reels of 2" tape, hundreds of cassettes and DATs, plus the entire library of his music and lyrics.
