You Use a Glass Mirror to See Your Face You Use Works of Art to See Your Soul
The source of the quotation is quite piece of cake to find. Towards the stop of "As Far Equally Thought Tin Attain," the 5th and terminal part of Back to Methuselah, the She-Aboriginal supports Ecrasia'south impression that art brings happiness to one's life.
ECRASIA. Yous take no correct to say that I am non sincere. I have institute a happiness in fine art that real life has never given me. I am intensely in earnest about art. At that place is a magic and mystery in art that you know nothing of.
THE SHE-ANCIENT. Yep, child: fine art is the magic mirror you make to reflect your invisible dreams in visible pictures. You use a glass mirror to run into your face: you employ works of art to come across your soul.
The first time one reads this quotation (at least the fleck quoted past Vintage Books), you lot may have the impression that both Ecrasia and the She-Ancient support a view of art that is not in consonance with Shaw'due south personal ideas. Aught new there. Later on all, why would all Shaw characters think similar "the principal of puppets"?
However, I must admit that I have omitted some of the She-Ancient'southward words. Specifically, her final sentence suggests that art equally a medium to feel life - and the Life Strength - must be superseded by more direct means in gild to reach the ultimate phase in the realization of homo beings.
THE SHE-ANCIENT. [...] Just we who are older use neither glass mirrors nor works of fine art. We have a direct sense of life. When you proceeds that yous will put aside your mirrors and statues, your toys and your dolls.
Thus, these words should perhaps be understood along the lines of the many other instances of Shavian antipathy for "art for art'south sake". Amongst these, two ofttimes-quoted passages stand out. The starting time, from the Epistle Dedicatory to Man and Superman, summarizes Shaw'south views on the necessary didacticism of art (and drama):
"No doubt I must recognize, equally even the Aboriginal Mariner did, that I must tell my story entertainingly if I am to agree the wedding guest spellbound in spite of the siren sounds of the loud bassoon. But 'for fine art's sake' alone I would not confront the toil of writing a unmarried sentence."
The other example is from Caesar and Cleopatra , where Apollodorus is the quintessential instance (comically distorted, in this case) of the aesthete whose motto is "fine art for art'due south sake."
SENTINEL. So you are the carpet merchant
APOLLODORUS (hurt). My friend: I am a patrician.
Watch. A patrician! A patrician keeping a shop instead of following arms!
APOLLODORUS. I do not keep a store. Mine is a temple of the arts. I am a worshipper of beauty. My calling is to cull beautiful things for beautiful Queens. My motto is Art for Art'southward sake.
Sentinel. That is not the password.
APOLLODORUS. Information technology is a universal password.
Even in the preface to ane of his latest plays (Farfetched Fables), Shaw could not help just insist on this thought that "the Shavian idiosyncrasy...disgusts the Art for Fine art'southward Sake Faction."
It is not difficult to trace this neglect for this idea of art to the seemingly antonymous views that Shaw and Oscar Wilde held in this respect.Indeed, this notion seems to take caught on amongst critics, considering the Introduction to Arms and the Man (written by some mysterious "G.") includes a articulate definition of Shavian poetics with special reference to the "Art for Art'southward sake" controversy:
"At that place never was an writer who showed less predilection for a specific medium by which to accomplish his results. He recognized, early in his days, many things amiss in the world and he causeless the job of mundane reformation with a confident spirit. It seems such a small task at twenty to gear up the times aright. He began equally an Essayist, but who reads essays now-a-days?—he then turned novelist with no better success, for no one would read such preposterous stuff equally he chose to emit. He merely succeeded in proving that absolutely rational men and women—although he has created few of the latter—can be near extremely disagreeable to our conventional way of thinking.
Equally a last resort, he turned to the stage, not that he cared for the dramatic art, for no human seems to intendance less near "Art for Fine art's sake," being in this a perfect foil to his brilliant compatriot and contemporary, Wilde. He bandage his theories in dramatic forms merely considering no other course except silence or physical revolt was open to him."
Of course, every bit was always the case with Shaw, his approach to aestheticism and the theory of literary art is far more complex than these lines can maybe limited, even summarily. Others take tried their hand at that, luckily for me. Be that as it may, and regardless of your personal philosophical preferences, we may also sit dorsum and enjoy proficient drama, whether for fine art'south sake, for world betterment, or only for fun. This is something the a Monty Python Flight Circus gag does exceedingly well.
Source: http://shawquotations.blogspot.com/2014/11/you-use-glass-mirror-to-see-your-face.html
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