Tolstoy's View on Art.

I didn't attend class today, but I'm still going to blog about Tolstoy's view on art because I feel very strongly about this chapter of the textbook.

Tolstoy's view on art is that it parallels what language is to society - the transferring of information. However, for art, it doesn't transfer information, it transfers emotions and feelings. And not only does it transfer these feelings, it also creates a very unified, interconnected society on earth full of art and feeling. When somebody looks at a piece of artwork, it "infects" them and whatever the artist felt while making it, the viewer ultimately feels as well. For instance, if an artist painted a very morose, gloomy landscape of waves crashing upon the base of a lighthouse with a stormy sky in the background, the artist is transferring those negative emotions into his painting which, thus, infects the viewer. The viewer senses the negative emotions based on the imagery of the piece and, in turn, feels the same emotions the painter originally felt.

What I thought was particularly interesting about this chapter was Tolstoy's prediction that if art did not exist, then society would be horrible and savage. If people did not have the capacity to receive these feelings and emotions through artwork, how would the transference of these feelings take place? We would be disconnected from each other. Therefore, it is easy to assume that art was almost a "savior" in Tolstoy's eyes and was detrimental to the ease of the human condition.

Which leads me to the question, "If art did not exist, how do you think society would act? Would it be as 'savage' and 'horrible' as Tolstoy predicts it to be?"