Romanticism vs. Realism

"The nineteenth-century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban, seeing his own face in a glass.
The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass."

~Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

 That being said, Romanticism and Realism are two interesting, opposing sides of a philosophical movement that the poets/artists/writers in the 1800s were obsessed with.

For the first half of the century, art was mostly leaning toward the Romantic movement, that is, a "romantic" idea of heroes and the human race being something infallible and amazing, dramatic and powerful. Don Juan with the Byronic hero, Frankenstein with the mistrust of synthetic humans, etc. clearly show this.

In contrast, Realism was the exact opposite. In the second half of the century, the American Civil War and other wars, coupled with the Industrial Revolution, began to show people the horrors and normalcy of life, so books were more "real" and focused on real situations. Huck Finn is a great example of this. But there are others.

Of course, Oscar Wilde above was saying that the opposing forces could never be accepted. In The Tempest, Caliban was a character who looked into a mirror and wanted to see himself powerful and handsome (think Mirror, Mirror, on the wall....). He didn't so he got into a rage.

If you stare at yourself in the mirror, and expect to see someone powerful, handsome and intelligent, and you don't, will you get angry? But if you see yourself as who you are, ordinary and ephemeral, will you get angry? Same principle. The Romantics expect to see someone powerful and dramatic, and fail to. The Realists wish to see themselves for who they are, and fail. None are satisfied.

That makes for interesting thoughts and an epic quote. Something to think about.

Of course, there are some that say that the only people who really cared about this were the elite rich class, so it shouldn't matter. But it's still interesting.

What are you -- a Romantic or Realist?

-Rob

Anyone there?

Over the past 6 weeks I've kind of let the blog die, or at the very least fall by the wayside. And I'm sorry about that. I certainly don't want it to die.

But there's a chance that all my readers are gone and there's no point in continuing the blog, which would be depressing.

So, if you're a reader, checking this out periodically to see if this blog is still active, it is. Please reply in the comments to show that you're interested in InfiniteMind.

While I'm at it, I'm planning several new Trivialities, so if there's something you've wanted to learn about or are curious about and don't feel like doing research, drop a line in the comments and I'll do a Triviality on it.

To the next!
-Rob

The Book Report

"The Book Report" is the euphemism/codeword that I will be using for this ongoing project that I'm spearheading, and am currently doing. Click on the song in the literal music box, which will stay there until "The Book Report" is done. That song represents my ongoing moods/worries/thoughts.

The blog is also black, to represent mourning and depression over "The Book Report". Believe me. It is not an easy project.

"The Book Report" was assigned a month ago, we started working two weeks ago because we needed supplies and materials, and was supposed to have finished today. However, due to delays and problems, we'll most likely take another few days. By Wednesday I expect to have everything done. Hopefully.

There - I have my thoughts. I know readers probably weren't expecting such a vent, but there you go. Just a status update, of sorts. Hopefully I'll be back to Trivializing, and reviewing (The Great Gatsby comes out next week!!!) so don't worry. InfiniteMind isn't gone.

-RM