Érgon

All literary genres are an imitation…and according to Aristotle, imitation is something intrinsic to human beings. This imitation occurs in all arts, namely an imitation of the rhythm, language, harmony. It does not mean these aspects have to coexist….they can occur separately. Although there are a lot of similarities between literary genres, there are always obvious differences. This is what happens with human beings: similarities and plenty of differences. The question is why the similarities are established…differences are easier to define, but similarities are incredibly difficult to delineate. Amazingly tragedy is the most complete imitation, although we all prefer, most of the times, to read a comedy. Tragedy is the imitation of a complete action, with completeness and grandiosity. However, not all complete things have grandiosity. What is a complete concept, thing? Probably something that has all the expected parts intrinsically connected. When Aristotle talks about this he makes reference to the beautiful…one of the most abstract concepts we deal with (at least is my point of view). Something beautiful is, according to Aristotle, all the parts ordered and their grandiosity. But how can we perceive it, if sometimes words are not enough…concepts are not able to define something? Establishing an analogy with human life….beauty is something transmitting grandiosity and order. Thus, “small” and disorganized people are not beautiful. However, “big” and “organized” isn’t, as well, beautiful. This would look like perfection, and this does not exist. Probably we should establish a practical deadline of all these dichotomies. We must absorb the whole set…the whole group of parts…because when they are divided they make no sense. That’s why when we read a book…and we like it….we need to read it till the end. Mainly because, unfortunately, it is the whole thing that matters…there are details not considered for most people. Different details perceived by different people in different moments.
Completeness and unity are difficult concepts…they are focused when someone refers to a poetic unit, but since literature is imitation of human acts….it means that one single human being action does not have, necessarily, to constitute a unity. When imitation is the goal…the poet must search for complete and united actions…and simply these ones. What a difficult task it would be if literature was exactly a true imitation of reality!

Egomet