Today I read this awesome quote by Friedrich Nietzsche: “The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude”
I couldn't agree more. I'd be a writer for free because I am so grateful that I can give people something beautiful, to open their minds with my creation, etc. does that make sense? What about u? How do u feel about this statement?
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I think the P.S. was the real intent of this post.
As for the quote -- I don't get it. I think people create because they have an inate desire to do so. Gratitude is but an emotion or state of being thankful, whether monitarily or just for personal recognition. It comes after the artwork is completed, thus negating its influence on the artwork itself.
That is unless your gratitude is for your own self, which is sort of an egotistical view of theworld.
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Wordcaster, I think you are missing the point of gratitude. By spending a few minutes each day, identifying what you feel deep gratitude for and allowing the emotion of it to seep into your conscious awareness, gives you an energy boost and raises your spirits, your willingness, your determination, your vibration.
A writer's moment of gratitude could look like this: "I'm grateful for having a unique vision and story to tell, I'm grateful for having the tools I need to write, I'm grateful for the wonderful release I feel as I allow my inner storyteller to create, I'm grateful for the Hatrack group of like-minded writers who are willing to give of their time to support me through critiques and comments.
Spend a few moments with thoughts of gratitude each day as you sit down to write. It truly makes a difference.
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All generalizations are wrong, including this one.
But I think this particular generalization about gratitude is particularly wrong. You can make it true, I suppose, by redefining "gratitude", but I don't even think Nietzsche believed anything like that -- if he even said it. This quote's all over the Internet, but without any source citation. It certainly doesn't sound like the Nietzsche who wrote *The Birth of Tragedy*. But then, Nietzsche was a prolific epigrammist and fond of provocative irony, so he might well have said this somewhere.
Elevating the particular to the universal is a common error in artistic criticism. That a wonderful novel is written in a "realistic" style with psychoanalytical themes and is about urban middle-class doesn't mean all novels have to be in that style, embrace those themes, or concern that kind of person. A novel about Hobbits carrying the One Ring to Mount Doom can be wonderful too.
I have no doubt that gratitude can inspire beauty, but so can sadness, wonder, or even anger. Beauty is the product of motivation using technique to work through the limitations of an imperfect medium. In other words, you can't have everything, but when you choose what to do and how in a wonderful way, the result is beautiful.
Here, I think, is a much better quote on beauty, from Henry Ford in his autobiography, *My Life and Work*:
quote:The most beautiful things in the world are those from which all excess weight has been eliminated.
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I think one can disagree with something without missing the point.
Was Emily Dickenson grateful when she created her artwork? Why is the state of being grateful the only feeling one can have that inspires ALL beautiful and great art? Certainly other states of being can accomplish greatness as well in their own manner.
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Gratitude meant something else in Nietzche's time, the word over time has changed into gratuity. Not really but it's funny to say in the context.
I've got to say gratitude is a wonderful thing, but it isn't the only source of beautiful, great art. In fact I'd say it's a rare source of such.
quote:The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.
Gratitude seeking, giving, receiving. Writing well is its own reward. Publishing to popular and ciritical acclaim receives gratitude. Graciously, I pray. Giving gratitude applauds art's beauty.
[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited September 23, 2011).]
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