Understanding Zero - A Cultural Breakthrough

Brahmagupta - Bing Image

A famous Indian mathematician/astronomer's discovery of the importance of the mathematical concept "zero" revolutionized the way we use mathematics today.

In the television programme The Story of Maths, presenter, Marcus du Sautoy says that Brahmagupta’s discovery was “the pivot on which human life depends.

"As the cultures of Rome, Greece and Mesopotamia fell into decline, so the culture and learning of India came into its own.

Astronomer and mathematician, Brahmagupta, lived in Northwest India in the seventh century and what he discovered about “zero” is still taught all over the world today. It was Brahmagupta who helped us to make sense of the new and exciting math term – zero - transforming it from a mere empty space, like a hole left in the sand when a stone is removed, and into a term that made sense in its own right.

The Philosophical Connection

Zero was already important in Indian culture, standing as it did, for nothingness and therefore for the void and for eternity. In Indian religions, nothingness is humanity’s ultimate goal.

The Indian word for zero is “shunya” because it represents the void. Brahmagupta is claimed to be the first person to use this term.

A Practical Example

We all understand:

• 1 + 0 = 1
• 1 - 0 = 1
• 1 x 0 = 0

But, as Brahmagupta realized, there was a problem, the problem of 1 ÷ 0. Brahmagupta's research began to make sense of even this problematic division sum. It was simple - smaller fractions simply produced more pieces - and continued producing them. Therefore, any division into smaller fractions gives us a higher figure, but representing numbers of pieces.

Imagine you have a piece of fruit, standing for one whole one. You divide it in half. Now you have two pieces of fruit. Divide by 3 / 5 / 9 / 20 and you have 3 / 5 / 9 / 20 pieces respectively. You can continue in this way, into infinity.

Divide a whole by zero and you have infinite numbers of pieces.

A Mathematical Revolution

Brahmagupta’s most famous work was the Brahmasphuta siddhanta produced in 628. No negative numbers appeared in this work. It’s claimed that zero was actually first introduced to the world in his work Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. This great thinker, it is claimed, was both competitive and derisive of his rivals, but the disputes occurred mainly in relation to the application of mathematical theory to the physical world and not in mathematics itself.

Understanding calculus with zero has helped revolutionize mathematical thought and represents a great gift to the world.

Source:

The Story of Maths: The Genius of the East presented by Marcus du Sautoy, BBC4 Meridian, 19.07.2011.

The Witch-Hunts - One More Reason Why The Gambia Celebrates the Overthrow of Yahya Jammeh

After 22 years of cruel dictatorship, no wonder the Gambians are celebrating the departure of Yahya Jammeh.

These notorious witch-hunts, which were in full force in March, 2009, were perpetrated by President Yahya Jammeh to oppress the people and to exact revenge on perceived enemies.. 

Innocent, mostly elderly people were rounded up from their villages by witch-hunters from Guinea and subjected to horrific treatment. Old people from the village of Sinto were abducted at 5 am by men armed with guns and spades. They were taken to secret government detention camps and made to drink hallucinogenic drugs, then beaten into confessing. At least two died and consequently many people fled in fear into the comparative safety of neighbouring Senegal.

During this terrible time, Gambians living in Banjul in order to make a living from the tourist trade were desperately worried about their families back in their villages. 

It was said that Jammeh’s favourite aunt had become ill and died, and he believed that she had been the target of witchcraft, and so he exacted this terrible revenge. 

Jammeh was originally a soldier who took power in 1994 in a coup against the former government on the grounds that the soldiers had not been paid. Few people are brave enough to speak against him, and a prominent journalist and editor of the opposition newspaper, The Point, has disappeared and never been accounted for.

Music, Emotion and the Ineffable that Cannot be Spoken

We say that works of art have organic form, or that they have a life of their own. But what about music? Can we really ascribe emotions - sad, happy, triumphant or mysterious, to a piece of music?

The philosopher, Susanne Langer, says that music, and the presentational symbols in music, should not be described as a language. In her essay "Philosophy in a New Key" in Theories of Art and Beauty, Langer describes two kinds of symbol. The first is discursive, for example, verbal language, which has vocabulary and syntax and can be sequentially ordered. Secondly, there is, the presentational symbol. Further, there is also the aspect of experience which is not fixed, and "cannot be spoken of, it is ineffable."

Susanne Langer describes music as "the imposition of form on experience by the mind" and of presentational symbols, she says, "Their very functioning as symbols depends on the fact that they are involved in a simultaneous, integral presentation." By "form" or "common logical form" Susanne Langer is referring to structure. She is saying that the emotional content of the work reaches beyond the verbal, and has a significance that she describes as "import."

Music as Self-Expression

Langer challenges the idea that music is a form of self-expression. She supports her argument by pointing out how music has developed historically from "the wailing, primitive dirge", eventually becoming "denotative and connotative" rather than emotional. She states that much self-expression cannot be regarded as musical, for example, "a lynching party howling round the gallows tree." From this and similar examples, she concludes: "Sheer self-expression requires no artistic form."

I would say this is inadequate as an argument. It could be said that music is a form of self-expression that evokes an aesthetic experience in the listeners through an arrangement of sounds. It may not be "sheer self-expression" but could still be regarded as a sophisticated form of self-expression, as described by Deryck Cooke in "The Language of Music" in Theories of Art and Beauty: "The expressive basis of the musical language of Western Europe consists of the intricate system of tensional relationships between notes."

Langer concedes that in playing music, "...we seek and often find self-expression." However, it would be naive to make an assumption about the composer/author's intentions based upon this, since different players give different interpretations of the same piece, "sad, angry, elated or impatient." Therefore, although we use music in this way, it is not its primary function.

Music as Semantics

According to Langer, music is semantic, in other words, it has meaning but does not stimulate or evoke emotions. Its semantic import is in its symbolism, which conveys the logical expression of feeling. She derides the literality of sound-painting in music. To describe "music as stimulus and music as emotive symptom" is not a sufficient condition, for this does not explain the importance we attach to feelings. "It is not self-expression, but an exposition of feelings" and "it expresses primarily the composer's knowledge of human feelings."

Robert Wilkinson, in his essay, "Art, Emotion and Expression" in Philosophical Aesthetics says that both Langer's attempt to explain the relation between music and emotion and Cooke's attempt to establish a language of emotion, are unsuccessful. This is because they believe, in their different ways, that the aesthetic value of music is to be explained by "something outside the music, ie. emotion." I find Robert Wilkinson's statement inadequate too, because an aesthetic response to a beautiful expression of feeling evoked by an arrangement of sounds must be important to human beings, even though we find it difficult to explain.

The Imprecise Nature and Subjectivity of Music

In describing presentational symbolism as "unconsummated" Susanne Langer tries to explain the imprecise nature of music as "a significant form without conventional significance." She uses the word "expressiveness" in preference to "expression." The former has a feeling of freedom and continuity, while the latter gives a sense of fixedness and completeness. In order to justify the ambivalence of her argument, she makes a distinction between the precision of logical "affects" and our tendency to refer to them indirectly by describing their "effects", ie. the moods that we subjectively project onto the music: "...a medieval realm, a fairy world, a heroic setting."  This is because it is difficult for us to have a "precise logical picture of "affects" at all."

A need to fall back on our own fantasies when we cannot make subjective sense of the musical is regarded by Langer as a program, and "a program is simply a crutch."  This inadequacy is in the listener, who does not understand what he is hearing. She agrees this might be a helpful device for people of limited musical intellect, but "...it becomes pernicious when teachers or critics or even composers initiate it, for then they make a virtue out of walking with a crutch." This seems to be a similar argument to that used by Kant, who accused those who disagreed with the prescribed concepts of beauty as deficient in taste. It denies the opposing argument a voice.

Emotional and Intellectual Satisfaction

What is important is that music gives us emotional and intellectual satisfaction and that we understand it. "Thus music has fulfilled its mission whenever our hearts are satisfied." It is natural that we mistake the effects of music for feelings since "...one looks at music as an implicit symbolism... the confusion appears as something to be expected."

This is unsatisfactory. If music gives us emotional satisfaction, we must play some part in the transaction. By simply responding, our feelings are surely being stimulated or evoked and our personal, learned experience of past feelings will have an effect upon our reactions. Whether our interpretation of the composer/author's intention is accurate is another matter, and in this Langer is justified in stating: "It is a peculiar fact that some musical forms seem to bear a sad and happy interpretation equally well." This is because "...what music can actually reflect is only the morphology of feeling."

Pitch, Time and Volume

This indicates a continuous process dependent on time. Since music and feelings are both continuous processes encompassing change through time, and since we can only hold one thought or one note or simultaneous combination of notes in our heads at one time, Deryck Cooke's view, which attempts to "decipher its language" cannot be disregarded. Cooke's view takes into account pitch, time and volume, which are all effects of change, or of morphology. He describes the positive emotions evoked by the major scales, such as joy, serenity and triumph, and the negative emotions expressed by the minor scales, sorrow, hate, etc. Cooke further asserts that music cannot express concepts, but can only express feelings. He continues by describing the quality of tonal tensions which "convey the basic emotional moods which are brought to life in various ways by the vitalizing agents of pitch, time and volume." The aspects of major and minor can be further complicated by slow and fast tempo. Cooke gives many strong examples.

For example, the well-known tune of "Roll Out the Barrel" could hardly be interpreted as anything but a simple, jolly tune for people in company, although we may have to guess whether it is specifically about drinking. This is not to deny that certain, complex pieces of music might suggest either sorrow or joy, as pointed out by Langer.

Final Comments

I would conclude that Susanne Langer's theory is not definitive and that she fails to explain, satisfactorily, how "a work of art gives form to a previously inconceivable element of experience" while accepting that artists often know what they are trying to do.

Wilkinson points out that if emotions have logical forms isolable from their contents, and that these logical forms are not peculiar to emotions, there is no logical justification for the assertion that music is a symbol specifically of emotion. It's relevant, maybe, to consider the view of philosophers such as Hume and Santayana, who include perception as a vital part of the aesthetic experience. At the same time, music is naturally taken by us to be about emotion, rather than about the many natural phenomena which it might, coincidentally, resemble in logical form.

In the end, we cannot deny the importance of perceiving and experiencing a work of art and, most vitally, its actual expressiveness.

Sources:

• Cooke, Deryck, "The Language of Music," Theories of Art and Beauty, The Open University, 1991.
• Langer, Susanne K. "Philosophy in a New Key," Theories of Art and Beauty, The Open University, 1991.
• Wilkinson, Robert, "Art Emotion and Expression," Philsophical Aesthetics, Blackwell Publishers in association with the Open University, 1992.

 

William Dyce shows us Eternity in his Victorian Painting of a Kent Beach

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Public Domain

William Dyce shows us eternity in his beautiful Victorian painting of a popular Kentish beach scene

Pegwell Bay is a shallow inlet located at the estuary of the River Stour in the British county of Kent, between the seaside towns of Ramsgate and Sandwich. William Dyce captured its haunting beauty in this wonderful painting, almost entirely executed in brown tones with touches of orange, pink and red. Since it has a beach environment, the warm, human colours chosen suit the individual setting.

A Universal Sport

The figures are small but significant, very much in the foreground of the painting and clearly defined, factors which make them important. In addition, the activity taking place is the universal sport of "collecting" - fossils or shells, in this case. Dyce's work fits in both the landscape and genre categories of painting in the sense of "a depiction of everyday life". It seems to me this painting may have come into being for sentimental reasons, maybe as a fragment of a memory that the artist wished to preserve.

The setting of the painting is the foil for the activity of these figures. While the ambers and browns are warm colours, the red cloak of one of the figures stands out against the other, softer hues, giving the painting almost a 3D effect. Nobody wears blue - that would have upset the colour balance as well as the effects of the painting in this true-to-life mode of representation. The muted lightness of Dyce's shallow, ebbing tide and the sky suggests that perhaps the sun has recently sunk into the horizon or, maybe, it is waiting to appear with the onset of dawn.

Detachment and a Sense of the Eternal

When viewing the painting, we might want to feel as though we are a part of the little group collecting their trophies, but, somehow, we are detached through being "higher".  Its composition is interesting in the way the cliffs almost cut the landscape into a top and bottom half. It's as though they protect the human figures, while the jutting promontory leads the eye out to sea and far places.

Pegwell Bay conveys a sense of the eternal; these layers of cliffs suggest a long, long timespan while the comet expresses the vastness of the universe. The preoccupations of the figures are dwarfed by the age and by the space of creation. This is not a painting to reassure or suggest any sense of certainty. The only possible sense of tranquillity in this painting is that of the surrounding universe, while the human involvement shows no ability to affect the unfolding of time.

Sources:

• Dyce, William, Pegwell Bay: A Recollection of October 5th 1858.

• Gombrich, E.H. Art & Illusion, A study in the psychology of pictorial representation, Phaidon Press, 1960.

 Copyright Janet Cameron

Prague's Old Town - the Hub of the Czech Republic's Golden City

Prague Old Town, Copyright Janet Cameron

Romantic Prague is a city of fairytale buildings, delightful streets and great food and drink. Whether you are after beauty or beer, you will find it here.

    

Heart of Medieval Bohemia, one-time Capital of the Roman Empire, Prague, also known as The City of a Thousand Spires, has seen oppression under both the Nazis and the Communists. After a split from the Austrian Empire after the 1914-1918 Great War, the Czech nation became a state.

"Forty years of Communism influenced nearly every side of our lives - our characters, our self-confidence, our industry, our skills," proclaims the promotional leaflet Prague Walks. Prague is renowned for its great "free" walks, many of which begin in the hub of its old town centre, in the vicinity of the famous Astronomical Clock. Wherever you look, there is a proud guide holding a brightly-coloured umbrella aloft as thrilled tourists trail behind, hardly able to fully comprehend the richness, diversity and colour around them.

The Astronomical Clock

The Astronomical Clock, Copyright Janet Cameron

Prague's Astronomical Clock is the oldest working clock of its type in the world and dates from the 1400s. Each hour, on the hour, a statue of Christ and his twelve apostles, appear in front of two openings. Taking lunch in a nearby restaurant, I always knew the time of day by the jubilant cheer that erupted from the expectant crowd as the little procession of religious figures emerged from this amazing timepiece. Below the main clock are medallions showing the signs of the Zodiac. These were added in 1865 by Josef Manes. To see the clock and the procession, please go to Prague in Your Pocket - The Astronomical Clock.

Prague Walks

The walks are, in the loosest sense, free. Although you are invited to donate something to your guide, you are not obliged to do so, but if you have enjoyed the tour and appreciate the quality of the information, then you may tip according to the level of your appreciation and your budget. Most tours begin in the Old Town Square close to the Astronomical Clock. The following trips are offered and leaflets showing details are freely available at information centres and other venues, or go towww.neweuropetours.eu

·      3-hour sightseeing tour covering most of Prague's most important landmarks.

·      Full-day tour, focussing on Kutna Hora and the Bone Chapel for those fascinated by the macabre.

·      3-hour tour to Prague Castle, including St. Vitus Cathedral and other attractions.

·      Full-day tour to Terezin Concentration Camp.

·      4-hour beer tour, evenings from 6.00pm. Expect to pay for your beer, of course.

Entertainment in the Old Town Square

You may find there's a stage set up in the middle of the Old Town Square and a great band just doing its stuff, while large screens above the crowds display the action for those unable to see the live show. A busker outside St. Nicholas Church brought tears to my eyes as he sang Ave Maria, then made me laugh with jolly drinking songs, and finally by serenading a local woman, see photo below. In the building adjoining Tyn Church, there were two art exhibitions and I spent a fascinating hour or two contemplating the weird work of Salvadore Dali.

The Old Town Square is well-served with every kind of restaurant, indoor and out. Plenty of places, too, to have a drink, or a take-away kebab or even just a bag of chips. There's even a Starbucks if you're missing home (although this seems unlikely in the midst of such a lively, welcoming place.) Starbucks is in the tall blue building near the Astronomical Clock, see the main photo.

Tyn Church

The twin towers of the gothic Church of Our Lady Before Tyne dominate, not only the Old Town Square, but Prague's skyline. Interestingly, the two spires are not symmetrical; they are meant to represent both the masculine and feminine in the world. To read more about Tyn Church please go to The Church of Our Lady Before Tyn The interior of the church is in the Baroque style.

St. Nicholas Church

The Baroque Church of St. Nicholas is located in the Old Town Square opposite Tyn Church. Its construction was completed in 1735. In the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, St. Nicholas became a Russian Orthodox church and it was used to accommodate the military during the Second World War. After the war it was taken over by the Hussite movement and has remained so ever since. You can find out more about St. Nicholas Church here.

Keep Prague Beautiful...

If you do go to Prague, and you are fit enough, please take note of Prague's "Save the Planet" plea: "Keep Prague beautiful. Why not help the environment by leaving a smaller footprint and going on a walking tour."

However, for those less able, there are excellent and inexpensive minibus tours also based in the Old Town Square.

Sources:

Sandemans New Prague Free Tour Guide, www.neweuropetours.eu 2012.

Prague Tourist Information, leaflet, info@prague-information.eu 2012.

Prague Walks, www.praguewalks.com 2012.

The Gambia - Jammeh has Gone - What Now?

Small boys playing in a mechanic's yard near Banjul

The Gambia is a poor country that has tried to survive in the shadow of a cruel dictator who gained control through a military coup in 1994 when he was an ordinary soldier. One of his most outrageous acts was to claim he could cure aids. He regularly sent out his soldiers to kidnap innocent people in the dead of night under false charges of witchcraft. Banjul Prison is notorious for its practices of torture and execution, and many Gambians who "disappear" are believed to have been detained there. 

Most Gambians survive either through the vital tourist trade or through the harvesting of their natural crops, peanuts.

Now Yahya Jammeh has taken himself off to Guinea with a fortune equivalent to over 11 million pounds, leaving a terrible legacy of poverty behind him.

Here is a video by the BBC showing joyful Gambians celebrating the tyrant's defeat.

Jubilation in Banjul

Having taught in The Gambia in 2009 and read many press reports in the independent newspaper The Point, I just hope Gambians will find the resources and support they need to gain their longed-for democracy and a decent standard of living. But it will be a hard slog.

The Tourist Trade - Will it Recover?

As a result of Jammeh's election defeat and final ousting, tourists have flocked back to Europe, depriving Gambians of much needed revenue to buy even basics like rice to feed and support their families. 

It's not hard to figure out the attraction between comparatively wealthy, mature Europeans and impoverished young Gambian men. It also works the other away around, as elderly men and young Gambian women seek each other out for mutual benefit. While this is not an ideal situation for young Gambians, it is an essential way of surviving and supporting their families.

It can be wearing for a woman travelling alone in The Gambia; it's not possible to take a walk or go shopping without being followed and harassed and the persistence of these young men is relentless. The procedure is always the same: 'What is your nice name?' 'Where are you staying?' 'You are very beautiful.' It can be helpful to learn to say: 'Stop bothering me' in Wolof or Mandinka. Having a few basic phrases of their languages tells the locals that you, the visitor, are fully aware of their system.

Handsome young men in The Gambia all appear to have taken a degree in writing love letters by text. They all have a mobile as tourists often take their old phones to The Gambia, knowing how they are prized. The men mill around with time to spare, drinking ataaya, a very sweet green tea, at the roadside. This is a long, complicated process involving copious amounts of sugar, and then transferring the mixture, newly heated, from the hot coals, pouring to and fro from one glass to another while it thickens. They drink tea and wait for an opportunity, or just while away the day. 

As one charity worker told me, 'In The Gambia, courting European women is seen as a legitimate way to increase their income. Sometimes it all goes badly wrong and the man does a runner. But I have been surprised to observe a large number of very successful relationships between young Gambian men and older European women.'

Young Gambians have extended families to support

The truth is, most young Gambian women don't want them. The women prefer to pursue older European men who can support them and their own families, rather than destitute Gambians. Besides, no poor Gambian man wants to support a new family; there are already impoverished sisters with small children, elderly parents, aunts and uncles, a grandmother, all making demands on whatever little money he makes in the hotel/tourist industries, or as a craft artist or security worker. 

European women are a viable option. They are past child-bearing age, have expendable incomes and are sometimes lonely. The men need ready cash and often are lonely for female company themselves. Sadly, Europeans can also be regarded as trophy partners and there is frequently an unnerving subservience in the way Gambians behave towards them. Women are addressed as 'Boss Lady', an epithet most find repellent and sexist.

Yet most cultures make do with what's available and viable. Europeans in their home countries might be looking for an opportunity to better themselves through a relationship, seeking to attract a wealthy or beautiful partner, or mate without paying the price of responsibility. Gambians are pretty much in the same situation as many white women were in previous centuries, needing to find a good husband to rescue them, and sometimes their families, from hardship. Gambia, in some ways, seems to resemble the world of Jane Austen, transported to a different time and location and with different rules.

Just as in Jane Austen's time, today in The Gambia, as the charity worker explains, genuine relationships, even loving partnerships, can arise from this unpromising situation of economic necessity. Although it is hypocritical to judge, it does seem that any woman embarking on such a relationship takes a huge risk, both with her finances and her emotional well-being. There are cases of women who married their men, and faced the barrage of red tape and expense to bring them to their home countries, only to be abandoned once their partner was established. 

Having shaken himself free of his need for support, the young man realises he has choices for the first time in his life.

It is common for mixed-race couple to marry and set up their own apartment, paid for by the woman, who may choose to spend as much time in the Gambia with her man as she can, or even relocate there. Sometimes, though, the women can make unwise choices. An Englishwoman married a young Gambian doctor about thirty-five years her junior in the local mosque. At the ceremony the groom was offered five goats for his bride. A tried and tested little joke, just for the occasion; the Gambians know how to make Europeans feel at home. 

When the bride returned to UK a few days later, she remarked she wasn't sure if she'd ever come back to The Gambia. The wedding would not, in any case, be legal in England. It is hard not to feel cynical because she had nothing to lose since her young doctor had to remain where he was. 

Of course, it's still the practice for some more wealthy Muslim men to take multiple wives, and no doubt the runaway bride might send her husband money. It was refreshing, though, to speak to Gambian men who said they believed in the Western way of one-to-one partnerships.

Another Gambian/English couple regularly travelled to The Gambia with a van-load of gifts for the local people and supplies for schools; they already lived together in Brighton in England and had been in a committed relationship for about four years.

'He's so great-looking,' the woman says, 'I'm terrified he'll leave me one day. But I think it's worth the risk.' In the end, it really is a matter of personal choice, but it should, at least, be an informed choice.

Horror and Sci-Fi Films - Why do we Love Watching Them?

Image Copyright Gareth Cameron

Creatures that are half-insect, half-man - giant jellyfish that rain down from Mars to take over our planet. Modern theorists reflect on why we love being scared.  

Fantasy and horror operate by challenging and dissolving perceived limits of reality and so violate our “normal” perspective. How can people be attracted by what is actually terrifying or repulsive? Why are we transfixed by imagery that it would seem most natural for us to avoid? It could be argued that this is an abnormality or a perversion, but Noel Carroll in his The Philosophy of Horror thinks this conclusion might be a misconception, given the vast numbers of human beings ‘turned on’ by horror and fantasy.

The “Pretend Theory”

Kendall Walton supports the “Pretend Theory” and maintains it’s all just make-believe – we make-believedly fear the monster in horror movies, analogously, we make-believedly feel happy or sad for characters in fiction with whom we identify. These, Walton believes, are “quasi-emotions” and when enjoying horror, we are merely feeling quasi-fear. Noel Carroll disagrees with Walton. “If it were a pretend emotion, one would think that it could be enjoyed at will.” Carroll offers an example: “I could elect to remain unmoved by The Exorcist. I could refuse to make believe I was horrified. But I don’t think that was really an option for those like myself who were overwhelmedly (sic) struck by it.”

Carroll takes an opposite stance from Walton's, one that falls in line with much current thought. He points out that the main psychoanalytic theories of horror maintain that the horror genre releases repression in a way that is liberating and, as a result, promotes an accompanying feeling of pleasure.

Contemporary Horror Fiction and Our Cultural Anxieties

Rosemary Jackson, a contemporary theorist, believes the monstrous creatures of the horror and sci-fi genres are manifestations of what we have repressed. “The fantastic traces the unsaid and the unseen of culture: that which has been silenced, made invisible, covered over and made absent.”

However, Carroll disagrees with Jackson that repression is always at the centre of the problem (although he concurs, it may be - sometimes.) He says, “We are not prepared with a ready cultural category for the insect slaves in the film This Island Earth. They are part insect and part man... The possibility… is not something our cultural categories lead us to expect; many perhaps never dreamed of the possibility of such a creature until they saw This Island Earth… But this is not because we have been repressing the possibility of these monsters.” So, while Carroll agrees that horror violates our culture's norms, the creatures it engenders do not and generally cannot exist in our reality.

So, for Carroll, the issue is that the monsters of horror fiction are “unthought.” There isno reason to assume that these cases will always connect with repressed material. Further, why should we try to repress such figures, which are merely routine deformations, recombinations, subtractions, etc? This argument is out-of-place. Who, for example, needs to repress a concept like “jellyfish as big as houses coming from Mars to conquer the world?” says Carroll. “There are no such jellyfish.”

The main hypothesis of Carroll’s philosophy seems to be that the act of repression is never pleasurable. “What is pleasurable is the lifting of repression.” It is fair to point out, however, that there is another hypothesis that repression - in itself - is pleasurable, although Carroll does not subscribe to this.

Sources

• Rosemary Jackson, Fantasy: the Literature of Subversion, Methuen, London, 1981.
• Noel Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror or Paradoxes of the Heart, Routledge, London, 1990.
• Steven Schneider, “The Paradox of Fiction” Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy,University of Tennessee, 2002, www.iep.utm.educ/fic Site includes excerpts from: Kendall Walton, “Fearing Fiction” Journal of Philosophy, 1978.

Sights of Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife - Stunning Architecture and Crazy Colours

I love the architecture and especially the gorgeous ochres and terracottas of Puerto de la Cruz, and, indeed, all of the island of Tenerife. The side of this house, predominantly a vibrant shade of blue decorated with connected human figures, is one of the most stunning.

These are pics of an artwork of stacked, balanced pebbles. They are not a memorial as I thought, but meant to signify the connectedness and balance of life.

Beautiful water gardens below. We walked up around 250 steps - and down again!

The hotels are all plush and shiny and showy. Here's ours, the Turquesa!

And rocks come in jolly useful for all sorts of constructions:

Oscar Wilde on Morality in Works of Art and Literature

Oscar Wilde, Bing Images

How does Oscar Wilde's assertion square up to the dictionary definition of the terms "moral" and "immoral"? These terms apply to the goodness or badness of human behaviour. In "An Ideal Husband," Wilde says "Morality is simply the attitude we adopt to people we personally dislike." It seems reasonable to suppose that, from Wilde's viewpoint, a sense of morality towards literature might be approached in a similar way, ie: "Morality is the attitude we adopt towards books we personally dislike."

It seems fair to dislike badly-written books regardless of content - but, to admire well-written books, while disregarding moral or immoral content is a more difficult concept. Wilde says: "Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault," indicating that the onus for extracting ugliness from a book rests with the reader. "Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril." Wilde endows the artist with an elitist, God-like status.

The Ugliness in Dorian's Heart

In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde includes episodes about another book which, presumably, was well-written since it has a profound effect on Dorian. It was given to Dorian by Lord Henry, provoking the accusation: "Yet, you poisoned me with a book once... it does harm." This is supported by Wilde's statement: "The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist." In another quotation, Wilde says: "It is the spectator, not life, that art really mirrors," suggesting that were the ugliness not already in Dorian's heart, he would not have been adversely affected. Therefore, the artist is absolved from responsibility, when s/he produces material that promotes and glorifies elements that might remain dormant or suppressed. Yet, according to Wilde: "An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style."

Freedom of Expression

Does Wilde have a moral right to distance himself from responsibility? In his essay: "Obscenity and Film Censorship," Bernard Williams examines the effects of offensive material in literature: "We emphatically reject a view.... that books have no good or bad effects at all. Quite certainly, books have all sorts of effects." Williams concedes that "there is no intrinsic reason why pornographic or obscene works should not also be capable of having artistic merit..." and he continues by commenting on the importance of freedom of expression. This is a paradox to which there is no easy answer.

The Picture of Dorian Grey presents many moral issues, for example, Dorian's wrenching with his conscience over the inhumane way he treated Sybil Vane, saying her beauty was in her art.. "Would it teach him to loathe his own soul?" He examines his emptiness of character, trying to find a way of assuaging his guilt for his cruelty. At this stage, Wilde's character is grappling with the very issues Wilde dismisses in the statement: "No artist has ethical sympathies." Dorian, the artist, admirer of the beautiful at the expense of all other human qualities, must face the ugliness in his soul, and may question whether good and beauty are mutually exclusive. Still using artistic status to justify his stance, Wilde insists: "Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for his art."

Artistic Psychical Distance

Central to Wilde's philosophy is that the aesthetic overcomes and makes meaningless all other issues. Beauty in expression is the primary function of literary excellence. The artist's role is separate from his/her art and only concerned with its perfect expression. Wilde sees no contradiction in making judgements in his writing about morality, yet keeping his artistic psychical distance. Producing a perfect work of art in which form is everything disregards the common concept of what might be acceptable and says that morality is irrelevant.

In his essay: "Psychical distance" as a factor in art and as an aesthetic principle," Edward Bullough says: "Distance... is obtained by separating the object and its appeal from one's own self, by putting it out of gear with practical needs and ends." According to Bullough's argument, this concept of being completely objective, of separating oneself from the artwork "sheds considerable light on a number of other problems of aesthetics."

Hope is Good

Two of Wilde's assertions create a further paradox. "All art is useless" and "Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these, there is hope." For most people hope is good as well as beautiful. It is a positive human emotion and exists in every aspect of human existence. If hope is a desirable quality in art, then it is also a useful and practical quality.

Yet, should we take at face value any single statement made by Oscar Wilde? He was an extrovert and sensation-seeker. He was always anxious to impress with a witticism or a throwaway remark. Wilde claims aesthetic beauty is the only element of value in an artwork, yet his entire argument is based upon his own subjective feelings for art and not on any rational philosophy. It appears that Wilde, for most his his artistic life until his decline into illness, took nothing seriously.

In conclusion, Wilde's work continues to stimulate our wonder and our imagination, and may never have caused psychological harm to his readers. Yet, it is doubtful that there are mitigating circumstances in Wilde's crude assertion that there are no moral or immoral books. This article would have been much more difficult to write if the central theme was "Books are well-written or badly-written. A consideration of the novel Justine by the Marquis de Sade."

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, first published by Ward, Lock & Company, 1891.

"Obscenity and Film Censorship" Bernard Williams, Art, Context and Value, The Open University, 1992.

"Psychical Distance" Edward Bullough, Theories of Art and Beauty, The Open University, 1991.

Oscar Wilde's quotations, unless otherwise specified, appear in the "Preface" of The Picture of Dorian Gray.