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Pot-Boilers
Excerpt from Pot-Boilers
I can imagine myself printing under that classic excuse, which has the merit of being in the grand literary tradition and as disingenuous as another for in these days an author is not more hungry than every one else, and my friends would have been the first to pardon my silence. You may take it for certain, by the way, that when a man says he is publishing at the instance of two or three friends he means that he is offering the public what he knows that the public could have done perfectly well Without. He means that he is printing neither to persuade nor to inform nor yet to express the truth that is in him, but simply to gratify an itch for such notoriety as the careless attention of a few thousand readers may be supposed to give. If I now contrive to escape the consequences of my own axiom it is thanks to you, My Publisher  or Publisher's representative must I say? (you are so very modest, my dear Whitworth, and so exact.)
I can imagine myself printing under that classic excuse, which has the merit of being in the grand literary tradition and as disingenuous as another for in these days an author is not more hungry than every one else, and my friends would have been the first to pardon my silence. You may take it for certain, by the way, that when a man says he is publishing at the instance of two or three friends he means that he is offering the public what he knows that the public could have done perfectly well Without. He means that he is printing neither to persuade nor to inform nor yet to express the truth that is in him, but simply to gratify an itch for such notoriety as the careless attention of a few thousand readers may be supposed to give. If I now contrive to escape the consequences of my own axiom it is thanks to you, My Publisher  or Publisher's representative must I say? (you are so very modest, my dear Whitworth, and so exact.)
168 pages, Hardcover
First published January 28, 2010
1 person is currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
Clive Bell
34 books22 followersLibrarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See also Clive Bell
Arthur Clive Howard Bell, British critic, proposed his aesthetic theory of significant form in Art in 1914.
The group of Bloomsbury associated Arthur Clive Heward Bell, an Englishman. He studied history at Marlborough and Trinity College, Cambridge, which educated him. Bell, one most prominent man, lived. Back at least to Immanuel Kant, peopel can trace the general view that properties of an object make something or define experiences. Bell found nothing else relevant about an object in any way to assess a valuable work. A painting for example represents something completely irrelevant to evaluating it. Consequently, unnecessary knowledge of the historical context or the intention of the painter for the appreciation of visual, he thought. "From life," "we need bring" "nothing," "no knowledge of its ideas and affairs, no familiarity with its emotions," ""to appreciate a work," he wrote.
The understanding of the notion differs. For Immanuel Kant, it meant roughly the shape of an object with as not an element. For Bell in contrast, "the" "unreal" "distinction," "you" can "conceive of" "neither" "a colorless space" nor a "relation." Bell famously coined the term to describe the distinctive type of "combination of lines and colors" which makes an object work.
Bell also claimed that the key value lies in ability to produce a distinctive experience in the viewer. Bell called this experience "emotion." It arouses that experience, as he defined it. In response to a work, we perceive an expression and thus experience emotion, he also suggested. The experience in turn sees pure ordinary objects in the world not as a means to something else but as an end, he suggested.
Ultimately, the value lies only in a means to "good states of mind," Bell thought. With "no" "more excellent or more intense" "state of mind" "than" "contemplation," Bell thought of visual works among the most valuable things. George Edward Moore, the philosopher, heavily influenced Bell like many persons in the group of Bloomsbury in his account of value.
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See also Clive Bell
Arthur Clive Howard Bell, British critic, proposed his aesthetic theory of significant form in Art in 1914.
The group of Bloomsbury associated Arthur Clive Heward Bell, an Englishman. He studied history at Marlborough and Trinity College, Cambridge, which educated him. Bell, one most prominent man, lived. Back at least to Immanuel Kant, peopel can trace the general view that properties of an object make something or define experiences. Bell found nothing else relevant about an object in any way to assess a valuable work. A painting for example represents something completely irrelevant to evaluating it. Consequently, unnecessary knowledge of the historical context or the intention of the painter for the appreciation of visual, he thought. "From life," "we need bring" "nothing," "no knowledge of its ideas and affairs, no familiarity with its emotions," ""to appreciate a work," he wrote.
The understanding of the notion differs. For Immanuel Kant, it meant roughly the shape of an object with as not an element. For Bell in contrast, "the" "unreal" "distinction," "you" can "conceive of" "neither" "a colorless space" nor a "relation." Bell famously coined the term to describe the distinctive type of "combination of lines and colors" which makes an object work.
Bell also claimed that the key value lies in ability to produce a distinctive experience in the viewer. Bell called this experience "emotion." It arouses that experience, as he defined it. In response to a work, we perceive an expression and thus experience emotion, he also suggested. The experience in turn sees pure ordinary objects in the world not as a means to something else but as an end, he suggested.
Ultimately, the value lies only in a means to "good states of mind," Bell thought. With "no" "more excellent or more intense" "state of mind" "than" "contemplation," Bell thought of visual works among the most valuable things. George Edward Moore, the philosopher, heavily influenced Bell like many persons in the group of Bloomsbury in his account of value.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 14, 2013
Composed of reviews and articles published early in Clive Bell's career as an art and book critic, this ebook was interesting to read. For one thing, reading it showed how strongly opinionated Bell was as a young man, with definite ideas about what is and is not "good art". He pontificates about his newly developing theories in no uncertain terms, and his viewpoint is quite black and white.
With the arrogance of a young man Bell pushes the reader to see art the way he sees it, and there is no room in his mind for disagreement. I'll read more of Bell's books to discover if he further solidified his theories or eventually moderated them. An early member of Old Bloomsbury, Bell was married to Virginia Woolf's elder sister, the artist Vanessa Bell. Although Vanessa left him for her fellow artist Duncan Grant, she and Clive Bell never divorced and remained friends throughout their lives.
With the arrogance of a young man Bell pushes the reader to see art the way he sees it, and there is no room in his mind for disagreement. I'll read more of Bell's books to discover if he further solidified his theories or eventually moderated them. An early member of Old Bloomsbury, Bell was married to Virginia Woolf's elder sister, the artist Vanessa Bell. Although Vanessa left him for her fellow artist Duncan Grant, she and Clive Bell never divorced and remained friends throughout their lives.
Displaying 1 of 1 review