21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

practicalities of an ordinary life, beauty can be brought forth and creativity can be inspired. Thomas Hardy says: ‘The business of the novelist is to show the sorryness underlying the grandest of things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest of things.’

In similar vein, ‘We ordinary people…’ says Kenji Miyazawe, ‘…must forge our own beauty. We must set fire to the greyness of our labour with the wit of our own lives… What is the essence of this art of living? Of course, even this art should have beauty as its essence.’

Beauty is not something that we might respond to or might not. Beauty demands a response. Confucius was once asked to summarise his teachings in a simple manner and he did so with one word — reciprocity. Beauty — as in the beauty of the essence from which we have emerged, and the beauty of nature — requires a reciprocal response from us. Elaine Scarry addresses this point:

‘Beauty seems to place requirements on us for attending to the aliveness … of our world, and for entering into its protection.

‘Beauty is, then, a compact, or a contract between the beautiful being (or person, or thing) and the perceiver. As the beautiful confers on the perceiver the gift of life, so the perceiver confers on the beautiful being the gift of life. Each “welcomes” the other.’

Elaine Scarry — On Beauty and Being Just

James Hillman offers us a similar thought in his The Soul’s Code. He says: ‘Perception bestows blessing … perception brings into being and

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