In romantic seduction an oblique approach has a greater chance of success than a direct come-on. Even the most banal line like “Nice weather we’re having, don’t you think?” is preferable to “Hey baby, how about you and me going back to my place and getting it on!” And even if motivated by the purest intention, you must create a relationship rather than assume one at the start.
How strange that Truth, which classic poets often compared to a Sublime Maiden, is often approached brazenly by those who call themselves philosophers. Isn’t it vulgar to go up to Truth and, figuratively speaking, tear her clothes off and show her naked to the world? Under such conditions she’s not going to yield the full fruits of her love. “Here, at last, is The Truth!” they call out like carnies. These “truths” may be taken as The Truth, but in time, they pass. Witness Hegel, Marx, Sartre and Nietzsche. I’m wary of those who claim they’ve found The Truth. The direct approach is doomed to failure: Marlene Dietrich sang, “I like a guy who takes his time.”
Art is an approach to Truth. This is what Freud meant when he said, “Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.” The intuitions of poets reveal deeper human truths than clinical experiments. How sad that Freud didn’t learn the real lesson from art! Instead, he laid out his own set of invariable truths about the human psyche, various inescapable complexes, sexual impulses, the division of the persona into Ego, Id and Super-Ego. If Freud had really understood the message of the poets, he would’ve suggested truths as the poets do, not laid out a system.
The strength of art is that it refrains from making definitive statements. Most arts, due to the mediums used in their expression (sound, color, shape), can only suggest directions. The sensitive observer or listener will sense the truth in what they experience. But this truth remains a mystery existing between the logical mind and the realm of emotions. I believe this is why Jesus spoke in parables to the disciples.
Humans desire systems. Each time we come too close to freedom, we shy away and create a new set of invariable rules. Though I’m no fan of Nietzsche, what was positive in his writings was the idea to free the human spirit and mind. But then came Freud to put us all back in our deterministic, biological prison. The Devil became the Id, our Adamic propensities became the Ego and, finally, Religious Morality, the moderator, became the Super-Ego. Confession left the Church and took place on the psychiatric couch.
Another example occurred at the end of the 19th century in music. As the tonal musical system collapsed in the West under the pressures of Wagnerian chromaticism, new ways were sought to introduce recognizable form into composition. These took various forms, the two best known were compositions using the concept of intervallic organization (for example Scriabin’s Black Mass Sonata), early Schoenberg works like Pierrot Lunaire among others) and the other, the creation of form through contrast in complexity or formal shape (for example Charles Ives’ Robert Browning Overture, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring or the first movement of Mahler’s 9th symphony. But, instead of staying in the realm of freedom, as if it was just too much to bear, the Twelve-Tone System of Composition was invented by Schoenberg, which then held almost total sway in the West for decades afterwards.
It’s regrettable that Freedom is often equated with Chaos. Happily, there are those who can’t bend to external rules, their intuition is too powerful. The Poet was there before all systems and will be there long after they are gone.