Roger >> But I seem to remember reading an exhortation by Roethke that readers should initially approach all poems with great respect and faith in the poet. (I can't find the exact quote). In other words, one should read all poems as if it were given that they are of the highest quality. If one approaches a poem with skepticism about its quality, it amounts to a self-fulfilling prophecy. <<
Roethke was certainly right, and it turns on a distinction between "appreciation" and "criticism." Appreciation is much more demanding. You have to set aside your own preconceptions and commit yourself to, as it were, living with a poem, until its laws reveal themselves to you. Or not! For appreciation is always capable of failure. Criticism, on the other hand, never fails, since it imposes its own laws on the poem.
In practice, no doubt, what we mean by "criticism" involves an interplay of "appreciation" and "criticism" in these narrower senses, but they are logically divergent activities, and the commonest shortcoming of critics is no doubt underdevelopment of the appreciative faculty.
Rhina >> The artist is a depicter, not a counterfeiter. His work is not intended to replace or be taken for the model. <<
Yes, but then again a good likeness is one of the criteria of success. If so, wouldn't an absolutely indistinguishable likeness be superior to an approximation?
Magritte's relevant painting is a super-conventional, iconic representation of a pipe. The utter banality of the representation is overpowering, in a way. It is an ironically abject submission to the outer, superficial aspect of artistic mimesis. The inner aspect is suggested by a saying attributed to the medieval alchemists: "Art is the imitation of Nature in its mode of operation." Not a slavish copying of appearances, but an occult investigation into how the visible results are arrived at. An audacious attempt to acquire something of Nature's power. Hence perhaps Jody's distinction:
>> If you want to grasp the existence of an apple, go to an apple tree.
If you want to grasp the essence of an apple, go to a poet. <<
"poet" here being understood in the etymological sense of "maker."
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Hybrid Mode
