The Aesthetics of Sleep

In a recent issue of the journal The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known there is a description of something that concerns many people. The issue is titled "Why People Can't Sleep," and it contains notes of a 1946 lecture Eli Siegel gave on the subject. At this time, as more and more people are having trouble sleeping, what is said in this lecture, and in the commentary by Ellen Reiss, can make for deeper thought and understanding of this important and confusing subject. Here are the introductory paragraphs of this issue, and a link to the rest of it.

The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known--July 22, 2009
Issue #1749

Why People Can't Sleep
Here, based on notes taken by Martha Baird, is The Philosophy of Insomnia, the lecture Eli Siegel gave at Steinway Hall on December 19, 1946. Its subject, the inability to sleep, torments people today as it has for centuries. Around 1370, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote of himself:

I have gret wonder, be this lyghte,
How that I lyve, for day ne nyghte
I may nat slepe wel nygh noght.

That means: “I have great wonder, by this light, / How I live, for day or night / I cannot sleep nearly at all.” He says that, for lack of sleep, he is “a mased thing, / Alway in poynt to falle adoun” (“a dazed thing, / Always at the point of falling down”). *Chaucer made poetry of his trouble about sleep; he told of it musically; but he didn't understand it.

Today, the psychologists don't understand the cause of sleeplessness any better than Chaucer did—and their expression on the matter is certainly much less beautiful. The website of the Mayo Clinic tells us that “stressful life events...may lead to insomnia”; also, “anxieties...may disrupt your sleep.” Well, such relations were noted long before Chaucer's time even—but why may they occur? And why may someone whose life is no more “stressful” than another's find herself agonizingly awake at 4 AM again and again?

The answer is in the lecture published here. It's also in the discussion of the subject in Eli Siegel's Self and World. As a prelude, I'll quote a passage from Self and World....

click to continue reading

Rock 'n Roll, the Opposites, & Our Greatest Hopes!--A Celebration, on Sunday, Aug. 24

I'm so glad that this exciting presentation will be taking place! It's an event not to be missed!

Aesthetic Realism Foundation
141 Greene Street, Manhattan

SUNDAY • AUGUST 24 • 2:30 PM

The Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company presents:Rock ‘n’ Roll, The Opposites, & Our Greatest Hopes—A Celebration! Why has rock 'n roll affected people so much? Singing & commenting on songs from the '50s and '60s to the present, the performers illustrate these sentences from an Aesthetic Realism lesson Eli Siegel gave to a rock musician: “Rock ‘n’ roll has the answer to people’s problem of, on the one hand, wanting to be very private and sad, and on the other, wanting to have something like sunlight and public force. Every person has to make a one of the most secret thing in him and the most public thing. Rock ‘n’ roll shows it can be done.”

The Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method Shows Art and Science Are Related

As we approach the end of another school year, with many teachers and students less hopeful than ever about their purpose in the classroom, I want to tell educators about an important presentation on the success of the Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method. In it, my colleagues Rosemary Plumstead and Donita Elllison, teachers of science and art respectively, show how these two subjects, often seen as very separate, are deeply friendly to each other. Their talk is based on the central principle of Aesthetic Realism: "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites." You can read an account of this powerful presentation by clicking on the following link:
http://plum-education.blogspot.com/2007/11/art-science-and-aesthetic-realism.html

A kind and ethical approach to health care: it exists!

These days, Americans are increasingly worried about health care. Many people have no insurance, while others have coverage that is inadequate at best. While there's growing anger at this problem, it can seem as if no one in the position to do anything about it is ready to be brave and take a stand. The article "Imagine health care that is compassionate and real," by Christopher Balchin describes what is really possible--and not only possible, for it exists in the UK. Mr. Balchin describes the ethics behind our health care crisis, as explained by Aesthetic Realism. Forward this article to everyone you know!

The Aesthetic Realism Method in the Teaching of Art

The Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method, which has been used with enormous success by teachers for over 3 decades, has students learn the subjects in the curriculum with excitement and pleasure. This includes not only academic subjects, but also the arts. My colleague Donita Ellison teaches art at NYC's LaGuardia High School. Some of what she has seen about art, teaching, and the Aesthetic Realism Method is described in her blog, Aesthetic Realism; or, Why I Love Teaching Art. It is so clear from what she describes that art can be a means of young people's learning to have proud perception of the world, and knowing humanity better--including themselves.

Ellen Reiss, on the Aesthetic Realism Explanation of Poetry

Why have people loved poetry, written it, read it--even memorized it--for centuries? As an English teacher, I love studying poetry with my classes, and I am moved by how my students respond to it. I want people to know of the writing of Ellen Reiss, the Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism, whose study of and explanation of poetry, through the principles about beauty stated by Eli Siegel, has been an invaluable source of education for me. "Poetry," stated Mr. Siegel, "is the oneness of the permanent opposites in reality as seen by an individual." This is what Ellen Reiss describes richly in the writing here. She explains the relation of poetry--and also prose works--to the hopes, confusions, desires of people.

Eli Siegel's Poetry -- and, What is poetry?

As a person who loves poetry, and teaches it in my high school classes, I think the following page is tremendously valuable: Eli Siegel's Poetry -- and, What is poetry? It contains many poems and translations by the founder of Aesthetic Realism, American poet and critic Eli Siegel (1902-1978) , works of literary criticism by him and others, lectures he gave relating poetry to other subjects, and more. It is a resource I value, and I think other people will agree.