Speaking of the Muses, I was taken by Pieper’s reference to Thomas Mann’s “Doctor Faustus” (page 63): “The deal concerns “art”, created with uncommon technical skill yet entirely without substance, thriving only on the surprise it elicits by being outrageously novel and therefore unable to radiate any deeper meaning. As the Far Eastern proverb puts it, “Those who only look at themselves do ever radiate nothing.” Such a product, above all, contains no remembrance nor any power to elicit remembrance, and thus has nothing to do with The Muses.”
Schürk-Frisch's memorial to Edith Stein, killed in Auschwitz in 1942: https://tinyurl.com/3zm2u7mb
Speaking of the Muses, I was taken by Pieper’s reference to Thomas Mann’s “Doctor Faustus” (page 63): “The deal concerns “art”, created with uncommon technical skill yet entirely without substance, thriving only on the surprise it elicits by being outrageously novel and therefore unable to radiate any deeper meaning. As the Far Eastern proverb puts it, “Those who only look at themselves do ever radiate nothing.” Such a product, above all, contains no remembrance nor any power to elicit remembrance, and thus has nothing to do with The Muses.”
That was beautiful in every respect.
Alas, these days, art is all too often both insubstantial as such and technically unimpressive.