Crossing the divide: A website about Literature, Art & Philosophy by Venkat Ramanan

Is aesthetics only about art that is beautiful as conventionally understood? If not, what purpose does art that may not be so serve? My new essay published in May 2022 in Blue Labyrinths        Image: John Constable, Hadleigh Castle (1837) (Public Domain)

 It is a commonplace to claim that art imitates life. If so, art, in performing this mimesis, should respond also to our obsession and concern with temporality (time as experienced, not as measured, or human time as opposed to what the metaphysicians claim). How does art participate in this alchemy of smelting clock time into felt time? Read essay at Blue Labyrinths .

My essay  Vasily Grossman, Graham Greene and the nature of doubt  was published in  The Punch Magazine  in May 2020 - see  link. Claude Monet, Water Lily Pond (1899) (Wikimedia, Public Domain) What’s more important: having faith or being human? This essay examines this question by juxtaposing the work of the Russian writer Vasily Grossman against that of the English novelist Graham Greene.

The courage that Steinbeck writes about is one of physical and moral bravery whereas the strength of character Levi portrays should properly be termed “spiritual” or “existential” valour. The Third of May 1808 , Francisco de Goya 1814 (Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons) e seem of late to be more and more concerned with the question of what makes us human. Perhaps this has to do with the rise of secularism or our angst about machines. But it would seem humans have mulled over this question for a lot longer than we realise (even if not with the same intensity). Aristotle for instance thought that reason was what was so unique about us. We were not only the only species to have the ability to exercise our intellect but are conscious that it is also morally good to do so. In more recent times, the historian   Yuval Noah Harari has steered clear  of reason and morality while holding that what is special about humans is the fact that they are the only animals who can work coll