Given his past interest in considering aesthetics as a biological process, I was hoping that Boris would jump at the opportunity to discuss beauty as a kind of attraction, and then discuss attraction as a biological principle (the attraction of bees for flowers, vultures for carrion, male for female, etc). Indeed, I was even hoping that Boris would expand that discussion to the rest of our universe (the attraction of the earth for the sun, positive ions for negative ions etc), and perhaps connect it all to the inclination of things " to evolve in the direction of good end goals, aside from any bad exploratory paths temporarily taken. (as Francis has put it)
But alas, he would seem to prefer to distinguish beauty from attraction. It's just that he hasn't begun to do that either. Perhaps the hot summer weather has addled him. Perhaps it has addled me as well, because I finally appreciate some of Frances' tedious prose: " The aesthetic and artistic differentia of natural and cultural objects and their forms with their "qualities" is to further be found in the force and power they have to reflect worthy values and to evoke intense responses in extraordinary ways. The differentia of artworks is found in the ability of their form to be empowered and reflective and evocative in ways not possible with ordinary objects of nonart. The form of an aesthetic object to be agreed as a work of art must bear and yield this power, and to further show this power as being able to reflect worthy values and to evoke intense responses." The phrase: "power they have to reflect worthy values" should be added to Michael's aesthetic credo, although his modern self would probably recoil from it for a variety of reasons. (which both Cheerskep and William would be happy to provide, were they not also on summer vacation) ____________________________________________________________ Easy-to-use, advanced features, flexible phone systems. Click here for more info. http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/fc/BLSrjnxcAB2TVxvau1nZw3wk879slX ZQ5OlpvxlHRKstNFf0rpQzPqf4Rna/
