Beauty And Being

Have we become beauty-blind? For two decades or more in the humanities, various political arguments have been put forward against beauty: that it distracts us from more important issues; that it is the handmaiden of privilege; and that it masks political interests. In On Beauty and Being Just Elaine Scarry not only defends beauty from the political arguments against it but also argues that beauty does indeed press us toward a greater concern for justice. Taking inspiration from writers and thinkers as diverse as Homer, Plato, Marcel Proust, Simone Weil, and Iris Murdoch as well as her own experiences, Scarry offers up an elegant, passionate manifesto for the revival of beauty in our intellectual work as well as our homes, museums, and classrooms. Scarry argues that our responses to beauty are perceptual events of profound significance for the individual and for society. Presenting us with a rare and exceptional opportunity to witness fairness, beauty assists us in our attention to justice. The beautiful object renders fairness, an abstract concept, concrete by making it directly available to our sensory perceptions. With its direct appeal to the senses, beauty stops us, transfixes us, fills us with a "surfeit of aliveness." In so doing, it takes the individual away from the center of his or her self-preoccupation and thus prompts a distribution of attention outward toward others and, ultimately, she contends, toward ethical fairness. Scarry, author of the landmark The Body in Pain and one of our bravest and most creative thinkers, offers us here philosophical critique written with clarity and conviction as well as a passionate plea that we change the way we think about beauty.

Taking inspiration from writers and thinkers as diverse as Homer, Plato, Marcel Proust, Simone Weil, and Iris Murdoch, as well as her own experiences, Scarry writes an elegant, passionate manifesto for the revival of beauty in our intellectual work as well as our homes, museums, and classrooms. 7 line illustrations.

Some curses aren’t meant to be broken . . . Lady Griselle Mottern is cursed. On her sixteenth birthday, an evil wizard transformed Griselle into a wolflike beast because of a past misdeed by one of her ancestors. Now, with her twenty-first birthday approaching, Griselle has only a few days left to make a boy fall in love with her, or the curse will become permanent, and she will forever be a beast. But breaking the curse isn’t Griselle’s only problem. An evil is lurking in the forest, one that is creeping closer and closer to her castle. Griselle will have to summon all her beastly strength to defeat this evil, even if it means dooming herself forever . . . Note: This 7,000-word short story originally appeared in the Von Flusshexen und Meerjungfrauen German-language anthology in 2020.

This book represents an attempt to distinguish and define what beauty is in metaphysical terms, to arrive at a better understanding of beauty as a transcendental property of being, and to establish beauty's place in philosophy alongside truth and the good through an exploration of whether there can truly be a philosophy of beauty, or whether beauty is merely a type of aesthetic. The first part of this work outlines the history of philosophical thought on the subject, through an introduction to three great theories of beauty - harmony, form, and relationism - and a discussion of the evolution of the fine arts. The second part introduces first the theory of aesthetics, then the relationship between nature, being, and beauty, and finally the controversy over whether beauty is natural or a product of human knowledge and experience. The third part moves towards a philosophy of beauty in a first sense: something that is real but immaterial, something that can be understood but not seen. This idea is constructed through an examination of beauty's relation to beings and existence, and finally through a juxtaposition of beauty with ugliness.

In this loose retelling of Howard's End, Zadie Smith considers the big questions: Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we visit our mistakes on our children? What makes life truly beautiful? Set in New England mainly and London partly, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding families—the Belseys and the Kippses—and a clutch of doomed affairs. It puts low morals among high ideals and asks some searching questions about what life does to love. For the Belseys and the Kippses, the confusions—both personal and political—of our uncertain age are about to be brought close to home: right to the heart of family.

Style is not just the clothes on our backs—it is self-expression, representation, and transformation. As a fashion-obsessed Ojibwe teen, Christian Allaire rarely saw anyone that looked like him in the magazines or movies he sought out for inspiration. Now the Fashion and Style Writer for Vogue, he is working to change that—because clothes are never just clothes. Men’s heels are a statement of pride in the face of LGTBQ+ discrimination, while ribbon shirts honor Indigenous ancestors and keep culture alive. Allaire takes the reader through boldly designed chapters to discuss additional topics like cosplay, make up, hijabs, and hair, probing the connections between fashion and history, culture, politics, and social justice. *A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

In this collection of 200 poems, written after retirement from a brilliant scientific career, author Nirander Safaya takes us on a panoramic journey of self-discovery. Collectively, these poems focus on: what it means to be Human. Attachment to life, desire to love and be loved, thirst for knowing, and consciousness are the hall marks of human nature. Dr. Safaya’s poetry portrays the beauty and the challenges of these human gifts and aspirations. The Beauty of Being Human shows how our lives can become truly beautiful and fulfilled by a conscious understanding of the gifts we Sapiens possess. The book is thematically divided into 3 parts: Part I has 70 poems on Life & Living, Part II has 68 poems on Love & Passion, and Part III has 62 poems on Light & Consciousness. By presenting the poems in a sequential order, the poet is taking the serious reader through a gradual unfolding of his aesthetic and philosophical vision of the pragmatic, romantic, and spiritual aspirations of human heart and soul. It also provides a casual poetry lover the freedom to read these poems randomly and enjoy their message and beauty. “Dazzling” and uplifting, the poetry of Nirander Safaya provides “surprising imagery...to uncommon and timeless effect”. The joys and sorrows of life and the saving grace of light and consciousness are the topics and the “sensory delight” of this book.

Looks at the life and work of the provocative Catholic social reformer from the personal point of view of someone who knew her well, her granddaughter.