more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
One notices in the visions of the cinematograph that whatever emotions are aroused by them, though they are likely to be weaker than those of ordinary life, are presented more clearly to the conscious.
Clarification
'Cinematograph' of 1909, pre- Charlie Chaplin
Gist of Idea
In the cinema the emotions are weaker, but much clearer than in ordinary life
Source
Roger Fry (An Essay in Aesthetics [1909], p.25)
Book Ref
Fry,Roger: 'Vision and Design' [Penguin 1937], p.25
A Reaction
Fry had probably only seen very simple melodramas, but the general idea that artistic emotions are weaker than real life, but much clearer, is quite plausible.
| 20344 | Music is not an expressive art, because it expresses no familiar emotions [Hanslick, by Wollheim] |
| 8123 | The purpose of art is to help mankind to evolve better, more socially beneficial feelings [Tolstoy] |
| 20425 | In the cinema the emotions are weaker, but much clearer than in ordinary life [Fry] |
| 23926 | Art is distinguished by its aesthetic emotion, which produces appropriate form [Bell,C] |
| 12164 | Expressing melancholy is a good thing, but arousing it is a bad thing [Scruton] |
| 20404 | Music isn't just sad because it makes the listener feel sad [Davies,S] |