Regarding the Rhinceros in the Room or the Personal Varieties of Beauty
“It is a loveless culture, which is afraid of beauty because it is disturbed by love.”
In today's episode, Doris and I discuss beauty - what it means to us, what we find beautiful and where we locate beauty in our lives. Perhaps I am more old-fashioned, while Doris is both a fan of the old and new, and more excited about what beauty means in our technologically evolving world. The discussion gets heated up at certain points, but with a topic like beauty, we have to let our souls express themselves. Perhaps we cannot agree on certain points, but if we were all the same, this beautiful world would be boring, wouldn't it? And it is a beautiful world. What is beauty for you?
Вечер после дождя (Evening after the rain), 1879 - Isaac Levitan
“Yes, she is pretty,” she said at last, “even very pretty. I have seen her twice, but only at a distance. So you admire this kind of beauty, do you?” she asked the prince, suddenly.
“Yes, I do—this kind.”
“Do you mean especially this kind?”
“Yes, especially this kind.”
“Why?”
“There is much suffering in this face,” murmured the prince, more as though talking to himself than answering the question.
“I think you are wandering a little, prince,” Mrs. Epanchin decided, after a lengthened survey of his face; and she tossed the portrait on to the table, haughtily.
Alexandra took it, and Adelaida came up, and both the girls examined the photograph. Just then Aglaya entered the room.
“What a power!” cried Adelaida suddenly, as she earnestly examined the portrait over her sister’s shoulder.
“Whom? What power?” asked her mother, crossly.
“Such beauty is real power,” said Adelaida. “With such beauty as that one might overthrow the world.” She returned to her easel thoughtfully.
Aglaya merely glanced at the portrait—frowned, and put out her underlip; then went and sat down on the sofa with folded hands. Mrs. Epanchin rang the bell. - from The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Part I, VII (trans Eva Martin)