Philosophers throughout history have asserted that “the fundamental nature of the world is aesthetic” (Alfred North Whitehead, Gregory Bateson,James Hillman, Martin Foss,Donald Winnicott to name a few.) The word aesthetics comes from the Greek word “aisthenesthai” which is the ability to perceive. James Hillman writes, “Aesthetics in this primordial sense involves sensing the things of [ Read more … ]
james joyce
Deconstructing the Partridge Family
The first LP I ever bought was The Partridge Family Album. I was 11 at the time and felt like a grown-up when I presented it to my grandfather at the drugstore and told him that this is what I wanted for my birthday. Today, my friend Robin sent me a Partridge Family Christmas card. [ Read more … ]
The Gate of Access . . .
In his novel Ulysses, James Joyce wrote: Any object, intensely regarded, may be a gate of access . . . Joyce’s quote reminds me of something Herbert Marcuse once said about art: Art [functions to] break open a dimension inaccessible to other experience, a dimension in which human beings, nature, and things no longer stand [ Read more … ]