It's important to remember that Kivy, and all of the modern philosophers that he quotes, are interested in distinguishing the "fine arts" from all the others.
Kivy focuses on the notions of representation and content/form - but there is also the question of whether that content is representing anything important. Aristotle, for example, required that good dramatic poetry represent people of good character (within the limits, of course, of their social status). While Kant required that a good poem contain "spirit" in order to arouse "aesthetic ideas". Kivy does not address the distinction between good content and the rest,, but obviously that distinction cannot be made until the content has been comprehended -- and that is why issues of representation and content/form are so important. Nor does Kivy elaborate on what makes for a good paraphrase -- he just assumes that we are all familiar with such things -- i.e. true statements about content. Does Houdon's great statue of George Washington respresent the first president of the United States? Yes it does -- and that is one of the many true statements of content that can be made about that statue - that can ultimately be used to argue why that content is more important than, say, a statue of a little boy in a fountain. So I'm thinking that Kivy would not distinguish between subject and content, as William does -- but only betwen the verifiability of each statement. For example, the statement that "Houdon is representing Washington as the idea man of the Enlightenment" would make some sense, but still be open to some dispute. Nor do I think Kivy could join Boris in saying that "Form is part of content", except in that content must be verified by form. If you're not interested in the quality of verifiable content -- I don't think that you have a horse in the race that Kivy is judging. (although -- I'm still waiting for him to bring his own horse to the contest) ***************************************************************************** ********************** >The basic distinction between subject and content is overlooked here. To say that the subject is not in the poem but outside it seems to conflate subject and content as subject. It is more accurate, i think, to regard subject as being inside the poem and content outside it. wc >Literary form and literary content are inseparable. Form is part of the content. (boris) ____________________________________________________________ Hotel pics, info and virtual tours. Click here to book a hotel online. http://thirdpartyoffers.netzero.net/TGL2231/fc/BLSrjnxVnqG3exZm2JcTzAw4MfQRlR R1Mrh0DHdB7lQLlb0BPfi1ZRFuCvW/
