As Tragedy is an imitation of personages better than the ordinary man...If the hero of your story is going to befall a tragedy, he had better be a better person than your audience, or they will not pity or sympathize with him.
Showing posts with label Virtue and Vice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virtue and Vice. Show all posts
Saturday
Your Hero Must be Virtuous
Character and Thought
There are in the natural order of things, therefore, two causes, Character and Thought, of their actions, and consequently of their success or failure in their lives.Aristotle on "character" and "thought". James Allen in his 1902 work As a Man Thinketh compresses these two ideas into one:"A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts"
Are Your Characters Better or Worse Than You?
The objects the imitator represents are actions, with agents who are necessarily either good men or bad - the diversities of human character being nearly always derivative from this primary distinction, since the line between virtue and vice is one dividing the whole of mankind. It follows, therefore, that the agents represented must be either above our own level of goodness, or beneath it.
Throughout the Poetics, Aristotle refers to artists as "imitators". Just as a painter tries to imitate reality on his canvass, so too does a writer attempt to imitate reality in the composition of a novel or play. Here he also talks about the "character" of the people in these works, and why it is important to keep the audience perspective in mind. When an audience is watching a play, they will perceive the characters as being either better or worse than they are. This is a crucial distinction to make, because if tragedy is to befall the hero of a play, the audience won't feel pity for him unless he is perceived to be more virtuous than they are.
Thursday
Work on Gaining Self-Respect, Not Respect from Others
"Others were his motive power and his prime concern. He didn't want to be great, but to be thought great. He didn't want to build, but to be thought a great builder. He borrowed from others in order to make an impression on others. There's your actual selflessness. It's his ego he's betrayed and given up. But everyone calls him selfish."
"A truly selfish man cannot be affected by the approval of others. He doesn't need it."
"There is no substitute for competence."
"If one doesn't respect oneself one can have neither love nor respect for others."
"We have come to hold, in a kind of mawkish stupor, that greatness is to be judged by self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice, we drool, is the ultimate virtue. Is sacrifice a virtue? Can a man sacrifice his integrity? His honor? His freedom? His ideal? His convictions? The honesty of his feelings? The independence of his thought? But these are a man's supreme possessions. Anything he gives up for them is not a sacrifice but an easy bargain. Should we not, then, stop preaching dangerous and vicious nonsense? Self-sacrifice? But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed. It is the unsacrificed self that we must respect in man above all."
In the preceding passages Rand explains more clearly what she means by "selfishness" and why it is the most ethical way a man can live.
Love Your Neighbor as Yourself?
"One can't love man without equally hating most of the creatures who pretend to bear his name. It's one or the other."
"Look, he seems to say, I'm so glad to be a pygmy, that's how virtuous I am...But that's not the spirit that leashed fire, steam, electricity, that crossed oceans in sailing sloops, that built airplanes and dams...and skyscrapers."
This is Rand complaining that to love all men equally is to do a huge disservice to humanity. We should recognize and exalt greatness.
True Integrity is Rare
"And what, incidentally, do you think integrity is? The ability not to pick a watch out of your neighbor's pocket? No, it's not as easy as that. If that were all, I'd say ninety-five percent of humanity were honest, upright men. Only, as you see, they aren't. Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea."
A big theme in the book is integrity. Howard's got it, and the other major characters lack it in varying degrees.
People May Interpret Your Selfishness as Selflessness
"That was the most selfish thing you've ever seen a man do"
Said Howard Roark, after being accused of being "fanatical and selfless" because he turned down a much-needed commission because he wouldn't be allowed to produce his own work without alterations.
Timeless Idea: Be Generous to Humanity
Be Generous to HumanityThat, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.
Franklin mentions that this was always a principle of his, and was the reason that he turned down a patent on the Franklin Stove. Good advice? Is this overly altruistic? Surely Ayn Rand would disagree with this philosophy. Franklin though, would probably answer that he was repaid ten-fold in other ways than if he had tried to profit from sales of the stove.
Timeless Idea: Moral Perfection Takes Practice
Moral Perfection Takes PracticeIt was about this time that I conceiv'd the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wish'd to live without committing any fault at any time.
Quite a project! And he really does it. First, he arrives upon 13 virtues that he wishes to instill in himself:
1. Temperance
2. Silence
3. Order
4. Resolution
5. Frugality
6. Industry
7. Sincerity
8. Justice
9. Moderation
10. Cleanliness
11. Tranquility
12. Chastity
13. Humility
He would concentrate on each of these for a week at a time, so every 13 weeks he would make it through his list. After that, he would start over; and he did this for several years. This book is worth reading just for this section alone.
tho' I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it
It is truly refreshing to hear a man speak of virtue; that he attributes not only his success, but his happiness to it. Our modern times seem to be devoid of any moral guidance. Franklin mentions that at one time in his life he wanted to write a book called The Art of Virtue, but he never got around to it. He says it does absolutely no good for a man to state that he wishes to be "good":
I should have called my book The Art of Virtue because it would have shown the means and manner of obtaining virtue, which would have distinguished it it from the mere exhortation to be good, that does not instruct and indicate the means
I have often thought this about the "Golden Rule". It is so simple a rule, but very hard to follow or even to understand. For example: Do you want people to think bad things about you? Well, then you shouldn't think bad things about others. Yet, we almost instinctively do this all the time, without even realizing it. Do you want people to be genuinely interested in what you have to say? Well, then doesn't that mean you should be genuinely interested in everything that they say?
Timeless Idea: Don't Take Credit Up Front
Don't Take Credit Up Front
Benjamin Franklin decides to start a library in Pennsylvania, but he runs into difficulties:
The objections and reluctance I met with in soliciting the subscriptions, made me soon feel the impropriety of presenting one's self as the proposer of any useful project, that might be supposed to raise one's reputation in the smallest degree above that of one's neighbors, when one has need of their assistance to accomplish that project. I therefore put myself as much as I could out of sight, and stated it as a scheme of a number of friends, who had requested me to go about and propose it to such as they thought lovers of reading. In this way my affair went on more smoothly, and I ever practis'd it on such occasions; and, from my frequent successes, can heartily recommend it. The present little sacrifice of your vanity will afterwards be amply repaid.
So a problem Franklin runs into is that he wants to start a public project, but no one wants to help him because they all think he's just trying to make himself look good! So instead he says that it is a project of his "friends". Then in due time, he says, the truth will come out.
Timeless Idea: Character is More Important Than Pedigree
Character is More Important Than Pedigree...how little necessary all origin is to happiness, virtue, or greatness. And no end happens likewise without a means...the means are as simple as wisdom could make them; that is, depending upon nature, virtue, habit, and thought... Our sensations being very much fixed to the moment, we are apt to forget that more moments are to follow the first, and consequently a man should arrange his conduct so as to suit the whole of a life.
Great timeless wisdom from more than 200 years ago. Franklin should know that origins don't matter, since he came from nothing. What does matter in his opinion? Virtue, habit, and thoughts.
Timeless Idea: How to Deal With Men - Integrity and Sincerity
How to Deal With Men: Integrity and Sincerity
I grew convinc'd that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life; and I form'd written resolutions, which still remain in my journal book, to practice them ever while I lived.
Benjamin Franklin attributes a large portion of his success in life and politics to these principles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)