Not to be Reproduced

Two weeks ago on “Wednesday Thoughts on Art” we were left with Nietzsche’s romantic approach to art, claiming that a piece must come from the artist’s spirit, as the authentic emanation of the creator’s individuality. This perspective so often embraced regard the artist as a martyr to its own feelings, from which art derives. The book pictured in this Magritte's painting is Poe’s “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym”, an ode both to this romantic philosophy embodied by Poe, and to the ignorance of oneself’s true nature. In this mysterious book, Arthur Pym is forced to deal with an unknown himself, due to extreme navigation circumstances. This illustrates how problematic it is to derive art exclusively from one’s feelings - the remoteness that one can feel towards himself, making the emanation to the piece more complex, like this painting seams to suggest, not seeing the "face in the mirror", and only being reflected half book. Besides, imagine sustaining the same set of emotions for the long time it takes to create a master piece depicting agony, from the first draft to the last details. Like a Portuguese poet and writer Fernando Pessoa who was one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century once wrote “The poet is a faker \ Who’s so good at his act \ He even fakes the pain \ Of pain he feels in fact.” Artur Deus Dionisio Btw., today is Artur's birthday :) Parabéns! :)