Thank you for these two articles on the need for “useless art” and the power of beauty. I wonder would you write something about the weaponization of beauty? How beauty may be hijacked, if you will, to spread a false idea or even promote wickedness. Certain films come to mind…ones that are full of beautiful people, in beautiful scenery, shot with beautiful cinematography but promoting an utterly false worldview. Can the beauty transcend the falseness?
Beautiful! I really enjoyed reading this and what you say here agrees with my experience. I'm reminded of a scene in Shawshank Redemption. When Andy plays opera music on the loudspeaker, those men out in the prison yard lift their heads up. I like to think the music was so achingly beautiful that it drew them right up out of themselves and made them think of God. This is something I like to ponder - how beauty points to the Divine, how it is life-giving.
Hey Mark, thanks for this lovely article. I’ve been exploring what beauty is on my own substack, where I write about it as a kind of light - and presencing of the eternal - in this world, which has a transformative effect. What I found helpful in your article was the explanation of the ‘machine’, which weirdly dehumanises us, and how art (and by extension beauty) does the opposite; it doesn’t feed the machine, but the human soul. Much food for thought here! Thanks for the article, Mark - I look forward to the next one.
Thank you for these two articles on the need for “useless art” and the power of beauty. I wonder would you write something about the weaponization of beauty? How beauty may be hijacked, if you will, to spread a false idea or even promote wickedness. Certain films come to mind…ones that are full of beautiful people, in beautiful scenery, shot with beautiful cinematography but promoting an utterly false worldview. Can the beauty transcend the falseness?
Beautiful! I really enjoyed reading this and what you say here agrees with my experience. I'm reminded of a scene in Shawshank Redemption. When Andy plays opera music on the loudspeaker, those men out in the prison yard lift their heads up. I like to think the music was so achingly beautiful that it drew them right up out of themselves and made them think of God. This is something I like to ponder - how beauty points to the Divine, how it is life-giving.
Hey Mark, thanks for this lovely article. I’ve been exploring what beauty is on my own substack, where I write about it as a kind of light - and presencing of the eternal - in this world, which has a transformative effect. What I found helpful in your article was the explanation of the ‘machine’, which weirdly dehumanises us, and how art (and by extension beauty) does the opposite; it doesn’t feed the machine, but the human soul. Much food for thought here! Thanks for the article, Mark - I look forward to the next one.
Thank you for this Mark!!
Thanks, Heather! Would love to hear what resonated with you most!