The Aesthetic Shape of Things

The aesthetic and literary shape of development and invention, with regard to form and genre, redefine perimeters and perception. The writer must be aware of aesthetic origin in order to achieve innovative parallel. Aesthetic origin measures depth of form and genre. Yet, aesthetics must aid the writer in functions within parallel lines of origin and innovation; in order that the writer fully realize the shape of things.

The aesthetic and literary shape of development and invention, with regard to form and genre, redefine perimeters and perception. The writer must be aware of aesthetic origin in order to achieve innovative parallel. Aesthetic origin measures depth of form and genre. Yet, aesthetics must aid the writer in functions within parallel lines of origin and innovation; in order that the writer fully realize the shape of things.

What shapes the writer’s aesthetic and literary invention? The writer defines the shape of things from aesthetic origin. The superego and the soul find innovative parallel, thus, development takes place; form and genre unfold. Just as the Muses of Greek Mythology presided over art, literature, and science (according to Webster) aesthetic origin inspires the writer. “Creativity is not about brilliance. It’s about exuberance, focus, and fearlessness. It’s about trusting oneself…” (Cox, p. 29) To shape a literary work from chaos requires inner vision, hence aesthetic origin.

Still, paradigm shifts in aesthetics may alter the course of development and invention. “I write until I hear the click, I feel that I’m done when it all comes together, and I can figure out the story and know where it’s going.” (Park, p. 66) The “click” should speak to the writer about the development of form and genre. Susan Lori Parks made the shift to literature in 2003. The “click” relates to aesthetic origin, to the muse. Aesthetic development doesn’t come easy. Research and analysis cannot yield good espionage or litigation stories all by themselves the writer needs to find this or that genre deep within. Alice Walker wrote about genital mutilation and AIDS in The Temple of My Familiars; things, Ms. Walker had to draw from her own life to shape. It must mean something to the writer to craft a story or novel like this or the Color Purple. Like the sails of a ship, genre require appropriate plot to drive it home. Aesthetic origin manages the feat of acting as a guide or master and commander. Form and genre cannot manifest outside of this process, not in actuality.

Literary form and genre benefit from aesthetic origin in that their power to persuade gain introspection that the reader’s experience heightens. “When we say a photograph captures something it doesn’t really hold onto it, but it becomes a lens. We see through it in a very focused way, but we never mistake the photograph for the thing itself.” (Johnson, p. 24) Le Thi Diem Thuy goes on to explain how heightening experience requires a special voice. A special voice can connect us to the muse (or the click); in order to hear the voice the writer must be aesthetically-developed. For aesthetic origin benefits literary shape of things as well as development. Thuy’s genre deals with the immigrant experience and childhood. Writers hear the click that causes them to speak, but the voice must teach the writer. When what lies on the inside shines outside the writer will know form and genre. Introspection should visit any work of inner vision.

Inner vision shapes or heightens the writer-reader experience; it secures a more substantial response than if the work only dealt with superficial form and genre. Without introspection, the literary experience may not be significant. “The truth of her words tear down all our carefully contrived defense…and somehow in the process our spirits are restored and we can go on working.” (Paterson, p.24) Here, Ann Lamont exemplifies aesthetic origin’s most important element: Truth. For any experience to be holistic it must shed a certain amount of light. The reader’s experience may result in an imprint on society as a whole. The way people live and respond to one another enhances parallel aesthetic development. Aesthetic origin much like a black hole in space holds a note to the universe: the click. It is up to the writer to open up to the universe.

To better understand what the writer is and can do, form and genre must connect to meaning and experience must parallel the persona of the writer. In other words, the writer and reader should come to know one another in a deeper way. Otherwise what’s the point of writing? Awareness has something to say here; everything must be relative if viewed in consciousness. What awareness can do for both the writer and reader deserves further attention. Form and genre have an end product: Aesthetic development. Don’t misunderstand the process; aesthetic development has little to do with sanctity, it is more about connecting the reader to truth. “Nietzche believes, language necessarily ‘falsifies’ reality. This is because through language we artificially order and simplify our raw experience.” (Flew, p. 231) Thus, the writer must operate under aesthetics to increase his or her form and genre and avoid fallacy and paradox. Viktor Frankl goes further with this idea to say: “It is, therefore, up to the patient to decide whether he should interpret his life as being responsible to society or his own conscience.” (Frankl, p.132) The persona, form and genre may, in fact, shape something other than rhetoric in the reader with a constant in mind. Thus, the experience must transcend form and genre; it must belong to something greater than itself.

The literary experience transcends form and genre when the writer meets the needs of the reality principle. Okay! Literature isn’t about therapy or is it? When people open books they do so in hope of gaining insight or merely to be entertained. The latter often takes center stage in popular culture, so that to writer should be vigilant. Literary works that set out to be entertaining, for the most part, need substance to be taken seriously, to get through award processes or to remain on best seller lists. What’s the difference between Ayn Rand and Toni Morrison, Zadie Smith and Pat Barker, Frank McCourt and Walter Mosley: form and genre? Most authors want to put out something relating to “the greatest good” or summum bunum, but, of course, that doesn’t always happen. The literary divide has the last word when it comes to the experience.

In view of the reality principle the literary experience must translate into aesthetic development and invention—the greatest good possible. Using the analogy of an apple, a clear picture can be had; unless an apple is eaten or used as a resource it has no value outside itself. Thus, the experience as well as the work should not result from mere conjuring, but from aesthetic development of form and genre. Whether it is suspense, comedy, true crime, mystery, or fantasy the work should impart something greater than itself, something useful such as an apple. It should serve a purpose. Hegel states: …

Necessary truths must be mind-imposed, but, like other critics of Kant, he rejected the ideas of thing-in-itself as unintelligible. This led him to the view that all that exists must be mental.” (Flew, p.129) The appearance of writing is merely an apple. Or Hobson’s Choice: is it the apple I want you to eat or the one which peaked your interest from the start? Hence, if an apple or a novel starts in the mind shouldn’t the truest mind carry it through to fruition?

To shape aesthetic development and invention with regard to form and genre, the experience and effort must transcend the carnal mind. The appearance of literature (syntax, diction, context, structure, etc…) should relate to the work’s genre and persona in a way which solidifies the effort. Thus, the carnal mind supplanted by the spiritual mind can meet “the demands of the environment and necessity to conform” (reality principle). Why? Innovative approaches require aesthetic development and invention in order to achieve the concept of the apple.

The impact on environment should reflect a broader experience. For example, the Green Press Initiative, Julia Buttterfly hill, authors, and publishers plan to promote recycled publishing with the release of “Industry Blueprint of Transformation” (a report detailing how sector can help preserve our eco-system). (Kamlin, p. 10) It is important to have authors and publishers working toward conservation. Just think, millions of books and periodicals circulate throughout the literary universe, so why do we need more? If writers of contemporary literature are to count for something, aesthetic development must apply, otherwise, the effort will not result in an apple. The apple eaten, its seeds planted, apple trees should appear—anything less will not do!

Actually, innovation equates to context to meaning in a literary sense. If the writer writes about ghetto life or intelligent beings from another world something has to “click,” without which the work may disintegrate. For innovation amounts to something new and different which require new thinking. How many ways can one deal with an apple? Viktor Frankl, Psychologist and Holocaust survivor, states in “Man’s Search for Meaning:” “the transitoriness of our existence in no way makes it meaningless, but it does constitute our responsibilities.” (Frankl, p.143). Literary form and genre need tried and true methods to develop aesthetic work worthy of the experience.

Finally, innovation cannot be taught it has to be discovered in order to truly open the writer to awareness and understanding—in the aesthetic sense. For the shape of things to come form from one experience into another and continues from there—if the work allows this. Isn’t that the point of writing—“transitoriness?” To plan a trip to Mars one needs more than a crew and space shuttle; there has to be structural form and genre. And these aspects must reflect something greater than themselves. Hence, aesthetic origin and aesthetic development both belong to the literary experience. The writer need only seize the time. Of course, there are variables and anomalies, but the literary experience base itself in constants. Therefore, the deeper things ultimately win out: the spirit in which one writes. Also, how that work impacts its environment, as far as form and genre are concerned. Form and genre fall into a distinct paradigm in which a single thing happens: the reader is engaged.