Notes on Beauty is Truth

The Art Critic by Norman Rockwell, 1955

Beauty is truth is a very short piece that I originally wrote as the start to a longer story set around the character of an art lecturer, Leonard Erskine. I wrote the story to start to explore the idea that because society itself has become so base and anarchistic that the truest form of rebellion, the truest form of going against the grain, is not to shock or be vulgar but to embrace instead the things that formerly defined civilised behaviour. In a society where everyone expects you to shout it is he who whispers who may have the loudest voice.

Things that were once some form of rebellion have went so mainstream that it really can no longer be called rebellion, it's just the way society is. I like to think one day society will emerge from this madness and suddenly realise that it has everything a little backwards. Everything about modern culture seems to be geared to be loud, brash and in your face; it knows no rules and no respect and it wants you to know it, it will shock you because that is what it is expected of it, it is a drunken parody of itself.

The piece is about an art lecturer because I think that the art that a society produces reflects the way that society is and the things it values. The history of art is the history of mankind. I love art and it never ceases to amaze me the beautiful things that people can paint, sculpt or create. I once asked a friend's thoughts about this and I liked their reply which was "we're all made in God's image; if people are creative it is because He first created, if people make something beautiful it is because He made beauty".

The story is about a man who, having come through the sixties and into the seventies, can see how society is changing and doesn't feel that it's necessarily good. His way of fighting back is to demonstrate that when what once was considered radical becomes the norm, it becomes more radical to do something different. The things that were valued in the past were often valued for good reasons and in becoming so radical society has thrown the baby out with the bath water. The character of Leonard Erskine wants to show what he believes is a better way and he does this through art. He feels that through highlighting the amazing beauty of art he can make the students aspire to greater things.

The title is, as I'm sure you have already noticed, a refrence to the final lines of Keats' Ode to a Grecian Urn. It's one of the most memorable lines in English poetry: 'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'

I have at varying times had plans for a longer format story, perhaps a novella, built around the character of Leonard Erskine but as yet I haven't settled on pursuing any particular ones. I have the character profiled and some back story worked out but have yet to decide whether or not to write more or leave it as it is; a brief statement of intent.