The Romantic Manifesto: A Philosophy of Literature

Index

Abstractions: and man’s cognitive faculty; converting of, by language, into psycho-epistemological equivalents of concretes ; normative and cognitive ; metaphysical, converting of, by art, into equivalent of concretes ; emotional; criteria of; esthetic; development of child’s cognitive and normative abstractions

Altruism: and man’s culturally induced selflessness; as archenemy and destroyer of Romanticism

American Tragedy, An (Dreiser), as a bad novel

Anna Christie (O’Neill), as imitation of Camille (Dumas fils)

Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), as an evil book

Anti-art, classification and examples of

Aquinas, Thomas, as bridge between Aristotle and Renaissance

Architecture: special attributes of as art; dependence of sculpture upon

Aristotle: his principle of esthetics of literature ; 19th century guided by Aristotelian sense of life; Romanticism of 19th century, and Aristotelian influence on

Art: as an end in itself; as selective re-creation of reality according to artist’s metaphysical value-judgments ; as concretiztion of metaphysics ; psycho-epistemological function of; as a universal language; beginning of, as adjunct of religion ; psycho-epistemology of, as illustrated by characterization in literature ; as indispensable medium for communication of a moral ideal; primary focus of, as metaphysical, not ethical; not the means of literal transcription ; place of ethics in, dependent on metaphysical views of artist; of Ancient Greece compared to art of Middle Ages, in impact on man; as voice of the philosophy dominant in a culture; role of emotions in; profoundly personal significance of, for men; as special province and expression of sense of life ; as human product most personally important to man and least understood ; metaphysical significance of everything included in; and man’s confirmation of his view of existence; and the rational man; and the irrational man; as man’s metaphysical mirror ; bad, as production of imitation, second-hand copying, lack of creative expression; philosophical meaning as necessary element of work of; subject of an art work; style of an art work ; and mixtures of contradictory elements of reason and unreason; theme of an art work; objective evaluation of work of; and personal choices in enjoyment of; translating meaning of art work into objective terms; conceptual nature of; valid forms of ; as a unifier of man’s consciousness; how new subcategories arise; limits on freedom of stylization in; integration as the essence of; as man’s psycho-epistemological conditioner ; universality as important attribute of; as concretization of values ; and philosophy, relationship between; nonexistence of, today, as vital cultural movement; and attitudes of collectivist estheticians and intellectuals toward popular values in; as barometer of a culture; the end and the means in, as worthy of each other ; as the technology of the soul; as product of philosophical disciplines—metaphysics, epistemology, ethics ; see also Modern art

Astaire, Fred

Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand): theme of; plot-theme of; quoted on conventional view of morality; quoted on man as a being of self-made soul

Avengers, The, successful British TV series

Ballet: as a system of dance ; essentials of its image of man; “modernization” of

Balzac, Honoré de, as Naturalist writer

Benefield, Barry, as popular-fiction writer

Brothers Karamazov, The (Dostoevsky), characterization in

Brown, Fredric, science fiction writing of

Byron, Lord, and “Byronic” view of existence

Camille (Dumas fils), and imitations of

Capitalism: destruction of, in politics; 19th-century Romanticists as enemies of

Cat and Mosue (Günter Grass), Time quoted on

Characterization in novel: as essential attribute ; definition of; extreme degree of selectivity required in; achieved by action and dialogue; error of asserting nature of characters in narrative passages without supporting action; and portrayal of essential traits of personality ; and revelation of motivation; consistency as a major requirement of; maintaining inner logic of; and faculty of volition; and Romantic novelists ; and popular fiction; and the Naturalists

Chayefsky, Paddy, and modern Naturalist work Marty

Child’s development: of moral sense of life; contribution of Romantic art to; of cognitive and normative abstractions ; and imposition of set of rules by conventional morality ; learning concept of moral values; and sins of adults in regard to child’s understanding of morality; dichotomy in consciousness of the practical versus the moral

Choreographer: nature and demands of his role

Chronicle: characteristics of ; return of modern literature to art form of

Classicism: Romanticism as rebellion against; rules of, as improper criteria of esthetic value; school of, improperly regarded as representative of reason

Cognitive faculty: as determining the proper forms of art

Collectivism: resurgence of, and effect of, on Romanticism ; advocacy of, by today’s estheticians and intellectuals ; altruistic, today’s culture as dominated by

Color harmony: a legitimate element in painting

“Color symphonies”: as anti-art

Concepts, nature and function of

Conceptual consciousness: disintegration of, as the goal of modern art

Connery, Sean, performance of, in Dr. No

Consciousness: of man, art as serving a need of; art as confirming or denying efficacy of; integrating mechanism of, and sense of life; as soul; and faculty of volition ; concern of top-rank Romantic writers with

Creative process, a short story by Ayn Rand as illustrative of nature of

Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky), motivation revealed in

Cubism

Culture: art as mirror of a culture’s philosophy ; art as barometer of ; state of, and today’s art

Dali, Salvador, style of

Dance: as a performing art ; as system of motion expressing a metaphysical view of man; its relation to music

Decorative arts: their nature and proper task

Definitions: as guardians of rationality

Determinism: philosophical and esthetic contradictions in; philosophy dominated by doctrine of; as basic premise of writers’ presentation of man prior to 19th century

Diatonic scale: development of

Dr. No (Fleming)

Don Carlos (Schiller)

Dostoevsky, Feodor: choice of subject by; reasons for liking work of; as master of integration of theme and plot structure; and use of motivation in Crime and Punishment; as top-rank Romantic novelist ; characterizations in novels of

Dramatic arts: subcategories of; importance of the play; director as integrator

Dreiser, Theodore, and a bad novel

Dumas, Alexander, as Romantic novelist

Emotional abstractions ; and individual’s view of himself; “important to me” as criterion of selection in

Epistemology: of physical sciences and of humanities; man’s need of; as abstract base of ethics ; see also Psycho-epistemology

Esthetics: Objectivist; criteria of judgment in; as branch of philosophy ; principles of; of literature, Aristotelian principle of; destruction of Romanticism in; field of, and mysticism; Romanticism in, as unrelated to theories of “Romantic” philosophers; state of, today, and prospects for philosophical Renaissance ; vacuum in, of our age

Ethics: as normative science ; link between metaphysics and; and artist’s conceptual theory of; place of, in work of art dependent on metaphysical views of artist ; metaphysical value-judgments as base of; man’s need of; destruction of individualism in; need of Western culture for a new code of ; epistemology, as abstract base of; relation of, to art; teaching as task of

Existentialists: philosophical view of existence of; sense of life achieved by

Ferber, Edna, as popular-fiction writer

Fiction: and identification of reader with characters in ; difference between real-life news story and ; four essential attributes of; and history, difference between representations of; integration of theme and plot as cardinal principle of; motivation as a key-concept in; see also Novel; Popular fiction

Film directors: Fritz Lang’s work

Flaubert, Gustave, style of

Fleming, Ian: as top-rank writer of popular fiction ; thrillers of

Fountainhead, The (Ayn Rand): character of Howard Roark in; Gail Wynand’s conflict of values in ; two scenes from, as illustration of process of characterization; example from, of Classicism surviving into 20th century ; quotation from; quoted on meaning of art in man’s life; “The explanation rests,” paraphrase of quotation from

From Russia with Love (Fleming)

Goldfinger (Fleming)

Gone With the Wind (Mitchell): theme of; plot-theme of

Goya, Francisco de, choice of subject by

Grand Guignol of old French theater

Grass, Günter, Time quoted on Cat and Mouse of

Hamilton, Donald, as top-rank writer of popular fiction

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, as writer of top-rank Romantic novel

Helmholtz, Herman Ludwig Ferdinand von: on mathematical nature of musical perception; on major and minor keys

Henry, O., as great Romantic writer

Hindu dance: its image of man

Hippies: as products of “Progressive” education; their reversion to the music of the jungle

Hitchcock, Alfred

Horror Story, in “serious” and popular fiction

Hugo, Victor: choice of subject by; style of, as blend of reason and passionate emotion; reasons for liking work of; as master of integration of theme and plot structure ; historical essays interrupting stories of; universe of, contrasted with Schopenhauer’s; as top-rank Romantic novelist ; characterizations in novels of ; introduction by Ayn Rand to his Ninety-Three ; rediscovering novels of ; as greatest novelist in world literature; intellectual first-aid kit for reading and appreciation of ; and conflict in his sense of life; the thinker, as archetypical of the virtues and fatal errors of 19th century; novels of, as experience for the reader

Humor, in “tongue-in-cheek” thrillers

Hurst, Fannie, as popular-fiction writer

Identity, Law of: man’s need of definitions as resting on

Impressionists, their work contrasted with Vermeer’s

Industrial Revolution

Integration: as psycho-epistemological key to reason

Irrationalism: philosophy dominated by doctrine of ; sense of life achieved by apostles of

It Can’t Happen Here (Lewis), as novel of Naturalistic school with Romantic approach

Josephson, Matthew, as biographer of Victor Hugo

Karloff, Boris, movies of, as archetype of the Horror Story

Lady of the Camellias, The (Dumas fils), and imitations of

Lang, Fritz: as director ; his film Siegfried as best of Romantic movies

Language: as means of retaining concepts; function of, in converting abstractions into concretes

Les Misérables (Hugo): theme of; plot-theme of; characterizations in

Levin, Ira, the supernatural in writing of

Lewis, Sinclair: and his characterization of Babbitt; choice of subject by; style of; as writer of Naturalistic school

Libretto, its function in operas and operettas

Liszt, Franz, his musical composition St. Francis Walking on the Waters

Literary style: fundamental elements of; and choice of words; and choice of content; comparison of, in excerpts from two novels; as most complex aspect of literature, and as most revealing psychologically ; not an end in itself ; see also Style of novel

Literature: by what means it re-creates reality; its integration of concepts to percepts; as ruler and term-setter in movies and television; Aristotelian principle of esthetics of ; novel as major literary form; and mind-body dichotomy that plagues it ; and basic premises of Romanticism and Naturalism regarding existence of man’s volition; and rules of Classicism; “serious” and popular, and the Horror Story ; eclectic shambles of today’s; nonexistence of today, as vital cultural movement; and presentation of man, prior to 19th century; modern, essential nature of man as represented in ; modern, return of, to art form of the chronicle ; as barometer of a culture ; selectivity of subject in, as cardinal aspect of; the ends and the means in, as worthy of each other; see also Fiction; Novel; Popular fiction; Thrillers

Logic: how its destruction made modern art possible

Magic Mountain, The (Mann), as bad novel

Maibaum, Richard, quoted on screenplays of Fleming’s novels

Man: as a being of self-made soul; and his need of philosophy; art as his psycho-epistemological conditioner; as an end in himself

Man Who Laughs, The (Hugo), characterization in

Manifesto, dictionary definition of

Mann, Thomas, and a bad novel

Marguerite and Armand (ballet)

Marty (Chayefsky), as work of modern Naturalism

Maurois, André, as biographer of Victor Hugo

Metaphysics: link between ethics and ; as science dealing with fundamental nature of reality ; and value-judgments; art as concretization of ; man’s need of ; of artist, and subject of his art work; of Naturalism ; music and dance as expressive of metaphysical view

Metaphysics in Marble (Sures), magazine article

Michelangelo, choice of subject by; his Pieta‘

Mind, man’s: current assaults on

Mitchell, Margaret, and plot structure in Gone With the Wind

Modern art: disintegration of man’s consciousness as goal of; its practitioners and admirers; as demonstration of cultural bankruptcy of our age; and composite picture of man; and presentation of emotions dominating modern man’s sense of life; and moral implications of trend toward lower levels of depravity in

Modern dance, characterized as neither modern nor dance

Modern philosophy, as source and sponsor of modern art

Moral sense of life: development of, in child; contribution of Romantic art to developing of ; and morality, differentiation between ; sins of adults toward child in developing of

Moral treason, and art

Morality: and moral sense of life, differentiation between ; and imposition of set of rules on the developing child; as a normative science ; mystical, social, subjective schools of

Motion pictures: role of literature and visual arts in ; work of Fritz Lang as director; reason for failure to develop as great art

Motivation, as a key-concept in psychology and in fiction

Movies, and Romanticism

Music: distinguished from other arts; pattern from musical perception to emotional response; psycho-epistemological nature of man’s response to ; role of sense of life in the response to ; hypothesis as to how and why it evokes emotions; mathematical nature of musical perception; metaphysical factors in enjoyment of; effects on mind of primitive and Oriental types; so-called “modern,” why it is not music; as related to the various performing arts

Mysticism: primitive epistemology of; and esthetics ; of Plato, resurgence of, in later part of 19th century, and effect of on Romanticism

Myths of religion

Naturalism: and anti-value orientation in work of art ; type of argument in evaluating work of art; and objection to plot of novel as artificial contrivance ; and denial of existence of man’s faculty of volition ; and assumption of mantle of reason and reality; disintegration of; Shakespeare as spiritual father of; journalistic approach of Naturalist writers; and substitution of statistics for standard of value ; and element of characterization ; final remnants of, with nothing to say about human existence ; Romanticism outlasted by; value in a Naturalist’s work and in a Romanticist’s; and imitator’s; and end of, with WW II; as man’s new enemy in art in later part of 19th century ; as dedicated to negation of art; and substitution of the collective for the objective; basic metaphysical premise of; doctrines of literary school of; and “compassionate” studies of depravity

Ninety-Three (Hugo): Introduction to, by Ayn Rand ; as uniquely “Hugo-esque,”; appraisal by two of Hugo’s biographers of; man’s loyalty to values as theme of; characterization in ; and integration of theme and plot; grandeur as leitmotif of

Notre-Dame de Paris (Hugo), characterization in

Novel: essential attributes of ; theme of ; plot of ; characterization of ; style of; as major literary form; shortcomings resulting in a bad novel; as recreation of reality; plot-theme of; and integration of major attributes of; top-rank Romantic novelists; second-rank Romantic novelists ; relation of thrillers to novels of serious Romantic literature; Victor Hugo as greatest novelist in world literature; and start and culmination of illustrious line of Romantic novelists in 19th century; and the Naturalist; see also Fiction; Popular fiction; Thrillers

Objectivism: passim

Objectivist, The, magazine

O’Hara, John: style of; as best of Naturalism’s contemporary survivors

Olympio ou la Vie de Victor Hugo (Maurois), appraisal of Ninety-Three in

One Lonely Night (Spillane), style of

O’Neill, Eugene, as imitator of Dumas fils, in Anna Christie

On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music (Helmholtz)

Opera, function of music and libretto in

Oriental music Painting: distinguished from other arts; role of sensory and conceptual factors in; color harmony in

Pantomine: dance distinguished from; classified as non-art

Performing artist: his task ; basic principles applicable to

Performing arts: relation to primary arts psycho-epistemological role of; application of basic artistic principles to inversion of ends and means in

Philosophy: as determinant of trends of world; of life, and full conceptual control; and setting of criteria of emotional integrations ; man’s need of; of man, as chosen by his mind or by chance; love as expression of; of artist, truth or falsehood of; and art, relationship between ; its practical importance ; the consequences of default in; Aristotle’s esthetics of literature ; modern, as swamp breeding ground of aborted art; dominated by doctrines of irrationalism and determinism ; since Renaissance, retrogression of, to mysticism of Plato; Romantic movement in, as unrelated to Romanticism in esthetics; new schools of, as progressively dedicated to negation of; antirational, and emotions dominating modern man’s sense of life

Photography: as not an art

Pieta‘ (Michelangelo)

Plot of novel: as essential attribute ; definition of; as dramatization of goal-directed action ; Naturalists’ objection to, as artificial contrivance ; and presentation of conflict of values; serving same function as steel skeleton of skyscraper; and events, as expressing meaning of novel; as not represented by physical action divorced from ideas and values; and premise of man’s possession of faculty of volition; plotlessness, and premise of man’s lack of volition; and antagonism of today’s esthetic spokesmen toward Romantic premise in; and top-rank Romantic novelists; and second rank of Romantic novelists ; and popular fiction; and imitators of Romanticists

Plot-theme of novel ; as core of its events ; and top-rank Romantic novelists

Poe, Edgar Allan, as modern ancestor of the Horror Story

Poem, basic attributes of

Popular fiction: common-sense ideas and values as base of; and absence of explicitly ideational element ; categories of ; contemporary examples of best writers of; characteristics of writing below top level of; “slick-magazine” type of ; and the Horror Story

Possessed, The (Dostoevsky), characterization in

Primitive music

“Progressive” education, hippies as products of

Psycho-epistemology: definition of; in art as illustrated by characterization in literature; and concretization of cognitive abstractions ; and concretization of normative abstractions; and metaphysical views of artist ; and process of communication between artist and viewer or reader; of artist, and style of his art work; role of in man’s musical responses ; art as the conditioner of; consonant with reality and man’s nature

Quo Vadis (Sienkiewicz): as top-rank Romantic novel ; characterizations in

Rand, Ayn: hypothesis on nature of man’s response to music; favorite form of dance; goal of writing of; projection of an ideal man as motive and purpose ; portrayal of a moral ideal as end in itself ; what is not the purpose of; and irrelevancy of questions about primacy of the novelist or the philosopher in her writing ; and basic test for any story; defining and presenting conditions making possible an ideal man; presentation of Man as an end in himself ; Naturalism, as literary school diametrically opposed to; selectivity in regard to subject ; as Romantic Realist ; manifesto of, as stated by Howard Roark in The Fountainhead, quoted; and esthetic principle of Aristotle; and present state of our culture

Reality: man’s acquiring and retaining his knowledge of ; man’s applying his knowledge of; art as selective re-creation of, according to artist’s metaphysical value-judgments ; metaphysics as science dealing with fundamental nature of; and an art work’s support or negation of one’s fundamental view of; religion as attempt to offer comprehensive view of; and artist’s metaphysical evaluation of facts; stylizing of, by artist ; novel as re-creation of; Romanticism’s break with; psycho-epistemology consonant with facts of

Reason: its relation to man’s survival; modern philosophers’ war against

Religion: beginning of art as adjunct to; mythology of, as concretization of its moral code; as primitive form of philosophy ; myths of; and Romanticists

Robinson, Bill

Rolland, Romain, as romanticizing Naturalist writer

Romanticism: and value orientation in work of art; and recognition of man’s faculty of volition ; practically non-existent in today’s literature ; antagonism of today’s esthetic spokesmen toward Romantic premise in art; destruction of, in esthetics; of 19th century, and influences of Aristotelianism and capitalism; as rebellion against Classicism; primacy of values brought to art by; and irony of definition declaring it as based on primacy of emotions ; and break with reality; philosophers as contributors to confusion surrounding term; definition of, as volition-oriented school ; and top-rank Romantic novelists and playwrights ; and second rank of Romantic writers; and writers with mixed premise of volition; philosophically as crusade to glorify man’s existence ; psychologically experienced as desire to make life interesting; virtues and potential flaws of, as seen in popular literature ; and movies and television ; and attempt to eliminate from Romantic fiction; altruist morality as archenemy and destroyer of; final remnants of; outlasted by Naturalism; value in a Romanticist’s work and in a Naturalist’s ; and end of great era of, with WW I; remnants of, in popular media; and escape into the supernatural ; and coming of age, with rebirth of reason and philosophy; as great new movement in art in 19th century; treated as bootleg merchandise ; and development of moral sense of life

Rosemary’s Baby (Levin), use of the supernatural in

Rostand, Edmond, as top-rank Romantic playwright

Royal Ballet, performance of Marguerite and Armand

Ruy Blas (Hugo)

Satire, legitimate, contrasted with “tongue-in-cheek” thrillers

Scarlet Letter, The (Hawthorne), as top-rank Romantic novel

Schelling, Friedrich

Schiller, Friedrich, as top-rank Romantic playwright

Schopenhauer, Arthur

Scott, Walter, as Romantic novelist

Sculpture: of Ancient Greece and of Middle Ages, difference in presentation of man in; nature of, and relation to other arts

Selectivity, as a basic principle of the arts

Sense of life: definition of ; and integrating mechanism of the subconscious; and rational philosophy; dominated by fear ; formed by process of emotional generalization ; and early value-integrations; as integrated sum of a man’s basic values; and adolescence ; matching conscious convictions, in fully integrated personality ; transition from guidance by, to guidance by conscious philosophy; and conflict between conscious convictions; changing and correcting of ; profoundly personal quality of; relation of, to personality; as sense of one’s own identity ; as integration of mind and values; love and art, as special province and expression of; of artist, and control and integration of his work ; of viewer or reader, and response to work of art; projecting of, in subject and style of work of art; and intellectual approach, difference between, in response to work of art; and evaluation of work of specific writers; role of in music; role of in dance; Aristotelian h century guided by; of Romanticists, and cultural atmosphere of 19th century; of modern man, emotions dominating; see also Moral sense of life

Serling, Rod, as Naturalist writer, and as Romanticist

Shakespeare, William: choice of subject by; as spiritual father of Naturalism

Siegfried (Fritz Lang), as best of Romantic movies

Sienkiewicz, Henryk: as writer of top-rank Romantic novel; and characterizations in Quo Vadis

“Slick-magazine” type of Romanticists

Soul: man as a being of self-made soul; art as the technology of

Spillane, Mickey: reasons for liking work of; style of, in One Lonely Night ; as top-rank writer of popular fiction; thrillers of

St. Francis Walking on the Waters (Liszt), a musical composition

Stage director: nature and demands of his role

Style of art work: as expression of view of man’s consciousness ; as product of artist’s psycho-epistemology ; response of man to; as most complex element of art ; and so-called “painterly” school; Cubism ; importance of, to artist and to reader or viewer; and psycho-epistemological sense of life

Style of novel: as a major attribute ; as means by which other attributes are presented; comparison of, in excerpts from two novels; see also Literary style

Stylization, see Selectivity

Subject of art work: as expression of view of man’s existence ; artist’s choice of ; and projection of view of man’s place in universe ; selectivity in, as cardinal aspect of art

Sullivan, Louis H., principle of architecture of

Symbolism of primitive terror in presentation of man

Tap dancing

Television: physical action in dramas of; and Romanticism ; The Twilight Zone, series on; The Avengers, British series on

Theater: legitimate vs. illegitimate innovations in

Theme of art work, as link uniting subject and style

Theme of novel: as essential attribute; purpose of novel defined by; presented in terms of action; as core of its abstract meaning; and top-rank Romantic novelists ; and second rank of Romantic novelists; and popular fiction; in modern literature

Thrillers: “tongue-in-cheek,” ; as detective, spy, or adventure stories ; conflict as basic characteristic of; as simplified version of Romantic literature; relation of, to novels of serious Romantic literature ; humor in “tongue-in-cheek” thrillers ; social status of, and gulf between the people and their alleged intellectual leaders; modern intellectuals’ rush to the bandwagon of; as dramatization of abstraction of moral conflict; as spectacle of man’s efficacy ; and ultimate triumph of the good

Tolstoy, Leo: choice of subject by; evaluating work of; as Naturalist writer

Twilight Zone, The, series on TV, as symbolic projection of remnants of Romanticism

Value-judgments, metaphysical: as foundation of moral values; of artist, and selective re-creation of reality ; as base of ethics ; derived from an explicit metaphysics

Values: conflicts of; art as concretization of; primacy of, brought to art by Romanticists; common-sense values distinguished from conventional; moral, child’s learning concept of

Venus de Milo

Vermeer, Jan: choice of subject by; style of

Verne, Jules, as writer of science fiction

Victor Hugo (Josephson), appraisal of Ninety-Three in

“Violence Can be Fun,” article in TV Guide on The Avengers, quoted

Volition: man’s possession of, as premise of Romanticism ; man as not possessed of, as premise of Naturalism ; and importance of establishing as function of man’s rational faculty; confusion on, between esthetic Romanticists and “Romantic” philosophers; full commitment to premise of, by Romantic writers; commitment to premise of, by writers in regard to existence but not to consciousness ; commitment to premise of, by writers in regard to consciousness but not to existence

War and Peace (Tolstoy)

Web and the Rock, The (Wolfe), style of

Wells, H. G., as writer of science fiction

Wolfe, Thomas: style of; in The Web and the Rock

Zen Buddhists, sense of life achieved by

Zola, Émile: choice of subject by; as Naturalist writer