Longinus, Burke and the Sublime
Firstly for anyone else and a reminder to me the BBC Melvyn Bragg sublime pod cast can be found here:
and the Longinus wikipedia can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longinus_(literature)
Wikipedia confirms the following quote by Brody, Jules (1958). Boileau and Longinus. E. Droz:
"The effects of the Sublime are: loss of rationality, an alienation leading to identification with the creative process of the artist and a deep emotion mixed in pleasure and exaltation. An example of sublime (which the author quotes in the work) is a poem by Sappho, the so-called Ode to Jealousy, defined as a "Sublime ode". A writer's goal is not so much to express empty feelings, but to arouse emotion in his audience."
Whilst Longinus speaks about literary work we can expand this to cover all artistic work, including photography.
So perhaps this is where the photographer as an artists moves away from creating images that are pretty, captures of what is in front of the camera with no or little feeling to creating an emotional response to the viewer of the photograph, or image.
The BBC podcast was very interesting in how it describes sublime are an aesthetic attached to describe types of landscape like picturesque. However it wasn't restricted to Landscapes and this was a very small part of the discussion.
The majority appeared to focus around space, specifically Newton and his understanding of gravity and the measurable immeasurableness of the universe. Some key aspects I have recorded here in my blog were quotes from Edmund Burke who inquired into the efficient cause of sublimity and beauty.
Edmund is quoted here with the following that can be found at this website:
http://www.bartleby.com/24/2/401.html
"When I say I intend to inquire into the efficient cause of Sublimity and Beauty, I would not be understood to say, that I can come to the ultimate cause. I do not pretend that I shall ever be able to explain, why certain affections of the body produce such a distinct emotion of mind, and no other; or why the body is at all affected by the mind, or the mind by the body. A little thought will show this to be impossible. But I conceive, if we can discover what affections of the mind produce certain emotions of the body, and what distinct feelings and qualities of body shall produce certain determinate passions in the mind, and no others, I fancy a great deal will be done; something not unuseful towards a distinct knowledge of our passions, so far at least as we have them at present under our consideration. This is all, I believe, we can do"
So whilst Longinus feels unable to determine the ultimate cause for the body to produce emotions of the mind one can interpolate from literary to photography art, from Brody's quote, a loss of logic in the mind of the artist that can create the effects of the sublime
Wikipedia confirms the following quote by Brody, Jules (1958). Boileau and Longinus. E. Droz:
"The effects of the Sublime are: loss of rationality, an alienation leading to identification with the creative process of the artist and a deep emotion mixed in pleasure and exaltation. An example of sublime (which the author quotes in the work) is a poem by Sappho, the so-called Ode to Jealousy, defined as a "Sublime ode". A writer's goal is not so much to express empty feelings, but to arouse emotion in his audience."
Whilst Longinus speaks about literary work we can expand this to cover all artistic work, including photography.
So perhaps this is where the photographer as an artists moves away from creating images that are pretty, captures of what is in front of the camera with no or little feeling to creating an emotional response to the viewer of the photograph, or image.
The BBC podcast was very interesting in how it describes sublime are an aesthetic attached to describe types of landscape like picturesque. However it wasn't restricted to Landscapes and this was a very small part of the discussion.
The majority appeared to focus around space, specifically Newton and his understanding of gravity and the measurable immeasurableness of the universe. Some key aspects I have recorded here in my blog were quotes from Edmund Burke who inquired into the efficient cause of sublimity and beauty.
Edmund is quoted here with the following that can be found at this website:
http://www.bartleby.com/24/2/401.html
"When I say I intend to inquire into the efficient cause of Sublimity and Beauty, I would not be understood to say, that I can come to the ultimate cause. I do not pretend that I shall ever be able to explain, why certain affections of the body produce such a distinct emotion of mind, and no other; or why the body is at all affected by the mind, or the mind by the body. A little thought will show this to be impossible. But I conceive, if we can discover what affections of the mind produce certain emotions of the body, and what distinct feelings and qualities of body shall produce certain determinate passions in the mind, and no others, I fancy a great deal will be done; something not unuseful towards a distinct knowledge of our passions, so far at least as we have them at present under our consideration. This is all, I believe, we can do"
So whilst Longinus feels unable to determine the ultimate cause for the body to produce emotions of the mind one can interpolate from literary to photography art, from Brody's quote, a loss of logic in the mind of the artist that can create the effects of the sublime
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