I congratulate you, Jeremy, for not writing about Trump today. I am so sick not only of Trump, but of all the anti-Trump indignation. Have a good day...
I once asked Sir Roger why classical sculptures of women, going back over 2000 years, have huge chins and noses. He said something about them being ideal representations. I asked why would an ideal representation be so brutish and ugly. He did not have an answer. I thought this was pretty poor for an Oxford alumni.
Scruton's aesthetics are, as you suggest and he admits here, highly moralized. He is an old-fashioned teleological thinker who believes that there is a single form of the good life for human beings (i.e. human beings have a purpose/function just like knives, chairs, etc. have functions). So, from his perspective, one can make determinations about good and bad works of art and good and bad human beings just like one can make judgments about good and bad knives, chairs, dogs, parrots, flowers, trees, football players, violinists, etc.
By the way, I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but, late in his life, Scruton became friends with some of the people involved in Victor Orban's political party/movement. In fact, he became something of a celebrity in Hungary and there are now several 'Scruton Cafes' in Budapest, each of which has not only a library with a complete collection of Scruton's work, but also Scruton buttons and other paraphernalia. I visited one of them when I was in Budapest last year for a conference and picked up a few buttons.
I like what Scruton says about sentimentality and the comparison between Hardy and the older Tennyson. Why does Scruton describe Ulysses as Joyce’s farewell? Ulysses was published in 1922 and Joyce died in 1941. He produced Finnegans Wake after Ulysses.
I found this interview so interesting in many ways. Being American, I had heard of Scruton, but was not familiar in the way that someone from England would probably be. In the US, highbrow and lowbrow mingle almost at a molecular level. There is not the purity of high taste here that you find in England, and probably other parts of the UK. Not even at the top level Universities in our country would you find that purity. Or at least that’s what my limited experience tells me.
With the rise of neoliberalism in the Western world and the associated changes in shared values, I have found myself reconsidering conservatism in ways that I would never have done when I was younger. Scruton seems like a very reasonable conservative in many ways. I do disagree with his stance on homosexuality and will never be persuaded otherwise, however. I also appreciate what I’ve read about his opinions about sexuality and the erotic, and find them somewhat to my taste in my shallow examination. However, I wonder if there’s also some educational value for instance, in just plain pornography.
But as far as his opinions about aesthetics go, there is much to be admired. And I say that from my position as a punk rock influenced low brow snob. Here in the States we are so much more militant about our disapproval of the exclusion of some people from some privileges, and that includes aesthetic and intellectual privilege. It is “outside” in our general culture to revere certain types of art and intellectualism. This is, of course, not universally true. We do have that class of people who prefer to associate themselves with the trappings of privilege, but they seem to be more insincere than the English I’ve encountered, and more about the money in many ways. We diverged long ago now, and there’s no going back. Sincerity in the US is for outsiders. And we like our sentimentality.
So, anyway, thanks for posting this interview and bringing my attention to Scruton. It was a pleasant diversion this morning.
I congratulate you, Jeremy, for not writing about Trump today. I am so sick not only of Trump, but of all the anti-Trump indignation. Have a good day...
Appreciate this. Scruton is often a nice palette cleanser after being saturated in pop culture all the time.
I once asked Sir Roger why classical sculptures of women, going back over 2000 years, have huge chins and noses. He said something about them being ideal representations. I asked why would an ideal representation be so brutish and ugly. He did not have an answer. I thought this was pretty poor for an Oxford alumni.
Scruton's aesthetics are, as you suggest and he admits here, highly moralized. He is an old-fashioned teleological thinker who believes that there is a single form of the good life for human beings (i.e. human beings have a purpose/function just like knives, chairs, etc. have functions). So, from his perspective, one can make determinations about good and bad works of art and good and bad human beings just like one can make judgments about good and bad knives, chairs, dogs, parrots, flowers, trees, football players, violinists, etc.
By the way, I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but, late in his life, Scruton became friends with some of the people involved in Victor Orban's political party/movement. In fact, he became something of a celebrity in Hungary and there are now several 'Scruton Cafes' in Budapest, each of which has not only a library with a complete collection of Scruton's work, but also Scruton buttons and other paraphernalia. I visited one of them when I was in Budapest last year for a conference and picked up a few buttons.
I like what Scruton says about sentimentality and the comparison between Hardy and the older Tennyson. Why does Scruton describe Ulysses as Joyce’s farewell? Ulysses was published in 1922 and Joyce died in 1941. He produced Finnegans Wake after Ulysses.
I found this interview so interesting in many ways. Being American, I had heard of Scruton, but was not familiar in the way that someone from England would probably be. In the US, highbrow and lowbrow mingle almost at a molecular level. There is not the purity of high taste here that you find in England, and probably other parts of the UK. Not even at the top level Universities in our country would you find that purity. Or at least that’s what my limited experience tells me.
With the rise of neoliberalism in the Western world and the associated changes in shared values, I have found myself reconsidering conservatism in ways that I would never have done when I was younger. Scruton seems like a very reasonable conservative in many ways. I do disagree with his stance on homosexuality and will never be persuaded otherwise, however. I also appreciate what I’ve read about his opinions about sexuality and the erotic, and find them somewhat to my taste in my shallow examination. However, I wonder if there’s also some educational value for instance, in just plain pornography.
But as far as his opinions about aesthetics go, there is much to be admired. And I say that from my position as a punk rock influenced low brow snob. Here in the States we are so much more militant about our disapproval of the exclusion of some people from some privileges, and that includes aesthetic and intellectual privilege. It is “outside” in our general culture to revere certain types of art and intellectualism. This is, of course, not universally true. We do have that class of people who prefer to associate themselves with the trappings of privilege, but they seem to be more insincere than the English I’ve encountered, and more about the money in many ways. We diverged long ago now, and there’s no going back. Sincerity in the US is for outsiders. And we like our sentimentality.
So, anyway, thanks for posting this interview and bringing my attention to Scruton. It was a pleasant diversion this morning.