In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the narrator divides human understanding into two categories: romantic and classical. Classical understanding is based more on a logical/factual view of human understanding whereas romantic understanding focuses more on creative/artistic understanding.
When comparing romantic and classical reasoning I would definitely say that I tend to be more classical. I would describe myself as classical because I tend to only see the factual informational first, meaning I see only what is directly in front of my and use that directly as my understanding. An example of my classical understanding is my many field trips to the National Art Museum. Over the years, especially throughout elementary and middle school I took many field trips to the National Art Museum. However every time I went to the museum I could never seem to “appreciate” the various art forms to their fullest potential because I failed to use romantic understanding when viewing the art. Often times I only saw what was directly in front of me and based my understanding off of what I saw.
I definitely agree with the narrator that “both are valid ways of looking at the world although irreconcilable with each other.” I believe so because if we failed to view the world through a classical understanding we may not have been able to enact famous war strategies such as D-Day. Also if we failed to have romantic understanding we may not have been able to enjoy some of today’s classic paintings such as “Mona Lisa Smile” and “The Last Supper.”
While the use of looking at what is right in front of you logically does have classical basis, there is also the part of seeing the underlying meaning or idea. The romantic part is seeing only what is on the surface, at face value. However, I agree with the idea that both classical and romantic views are very important in understanding and looking at the world.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some points that you made here. I totally understand your point about how you experience works of art. Since I don't know how to paint or sculpt and I've never taken the time to understand the mechanics of painting and sculpting, I am unable to fully appreciate art from a classical point of view.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinions however I would say that with a romantic understanding of the world you are taking a lot of first visceral impressions and building on them. It has a lot to do with emotion and gut reaction. However about your view of things, just because you couldn’t form what you thought were romanticist impressions didn’t mean you had no feelings on the matter. You could still have some romantic thought and just had trouble defining it.
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