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Life as Art

Life as Art. Or, the Aesthetic Temptations of Eleventh-Century Japan: Pillow Book , 52-125 (October 16, 2003). The good life. Crito and Socrates: where they disagree Where Crito is unable to answer Socrates

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Life as Art

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  1. Life as Art Or, the Aesthetic Temptations of Eleventh-Century Japan: Pillow Book, 52-125 (October 16, 2003)

  2. The good life • Crito and Socrates: where they disagree • Where Crito is unable to answer Socrates • The good life is a life spent dealing justly with others and improving one’s soul, even at the expense of one’s personal life • The reward structure of The Sims

  3. Lightness and density • Density of literary reference, of personal implication • But this play of internal reference doesn’t seem to be about anything serious • Why are “Depressing Things,” “Hateful Things” that way?

  4. Experiments with value • Section 149: “There are times when the world so exasperates me that I feel I cannot go on living in it for another moment and I want to disappear for good. But then, if I happen to obtain some nice white paper, Michinoku paper, or white decorated paper, I decide I can put up with things as they are a little longer.”

  5. Desire • … And disappointment (sec. 13) • … And loss • … And frustration (sec. 14)

  6. Beyond good and evil? • What would be a life lived for the sake of beauty? • As opposed to…?

  7. “Should be” • Aesthetic standards applied to daily life • “A carriage passes by with a nasty, creaking noise… [When this happens,] I dislike not only the noise but also the owner of the carriage” (sec. 14) • The arbiter of elegance? • “as in a novel” • Sections 52 (Tadanobu’s visit), 86 (the square cakes) • Romances and novels • Genre confusions in the Pillow Book: sections 177, 179, 180, 181, 182– descriptions or fictions?

  8. Canons of beauty and value • What are the ideals of this text? • Meticulousness of the descriptions: beauty is infinitely specifiable • Lingering over details: details make all the difference • Openness and closedness of definitions • Beauty in relation to what other values?

  9. Conversation as strategy game Section 89

  10. The emergence of individuality • Sei Shōnagon as unusual woman • The exception and the rule • Being seen; being recognized; being loved • Our role

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